Cristina Hodgson
THE Malaga City Council plenary session held last Thursday, April 28, has approved the proposal to put forward the declaration of Mount Gibralfaro and Alcazabilla Street as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Urban Cultural Landscape Category.
The initiative is based on a motion presented by the Ciudadanos municipal group and has received the approval of Francisco Manuel de la Torre Prados, mayor of Malaga and all the spokespersons in the Consistory of Malaga.
According to the Councillor for Culture, Noelia Losada, the declaration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site would include the Gibralfaro Castle, the Alcazaba together with the Roman Theatre and the surroundings of the Jewish quarter of Malaga as a historical enclave in which the civilisations that have settled in the city throughout history, from the Phoenician, Roman, Muslim and Christian conquest to the present day, can be represented.
“Malaga is a three thousand year old city with historical heritage of incalculable value. There are few places in the world where you can see three cultures in such a unique journey,” Losada said.
Malaga’s aspiration would be to enter the same category of UNESCO’s World Heritage List as El Prado and the Buen Retiro Garden in Madrid.
However the process is not a quick or easy one. In the case of Madrid, for example, the proposal was put forward in 2014, but it wasn’t until 2021 that it was awarded the distinction.
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