San Pedro Alcántara ( St. Peter of Alcántara) (pop: approx 35,500) is a town in the municipality of Marbella, in

Andalucía Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It is a tourist destination of the

Costa del Sol The Costa del Sol (literally "Coast of the Sun" or "Sun Coast") is a region in the south of Spain in the autonomous community of Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns and communities along the coastline of the Province of Málaga and the easte ...

Geography

It is situated in the fertile plain of the same name, Vega de San Pedro Alcántara, a broad stretch of coastal lowland surrounded in a semicircle by rugged hills. On the East the Sierra Blanca of Marbella, dominated by its highest peak Pico del Astonar (1.270 m.) better known locally as "La Concha" (The Shell) because of its resemblance to a fluted sea shell when viewed from the west. To the North, there is the Sierra del Real or El Real del Duque, the Sierra de las Nieves and those of

Tolox Tolox is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. The municipality has a population of 2,317 (2006). It is situated in the centre of the Sierra de las Nieves Nature Park at ...

, on the West of the town the Monte Mayor and, finally, closing the mountain line the Sierra Bermeja.

Etymology

Named by the marquis of the Duero in 1860 after the franciscan friar

Peter of Alcántara Peter of Alcántara ( es, Pedro de Alcántara; 1499 – October 18, 1562) was a Spanish Franciscan friar who was canonized in 1669. Biography He was born at Alcántara, Province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain. His father, Peter Garavita, was t ...

History

During the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

times, the settlers in this

Hispania Baetica Hispania Baetica, often abbreviated Baetica, was one of three Roman provinces in Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula). Baetica was bordered to the west by Lusitania, and to the northeast by Hispania Tarraconensis. Baetica remained one of the basic ...

area were referred to the Roman

mansio In the Roman Empire, a ''mansio'' (from the Latin word ''mansus,'' the perfect passive participle of ''manere'' "to remain" or "to stay") was an official stopping place on a Roman road, or ''via'', maintained by the central government for the use ...

of Cilniana. The remains of the 2nd century Las Bóvedas thermae are found on the coastline. The

early Christian Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish d ...

Vega del Mar basílica dates from the 4th century. 16th century drawings by

Anton van den Wyngaerde Anton van den Wyngaerde ( Span.: ''Antonio de las Viñas''; 1525 – 7 May 1571) was a prolific Flemish topographical artist who made panoramic sketches and paintings of towns in the southern Netherlands, northern France, England, Italy, and Spa ...

commissioned by Filip II show the thermae, next to which the Las Bovedas watchtower was built. This was part of the extensive watchtower and fort system along the Spanish coast which was used to defend the population from the

barbary pirates The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli. This area was known i ...

. The threat of pirate raids explain why the villages grew inland ( Gaucin, Ojén or Benahavis) rather than on the coast unless they had a militar garrison and a solid fortress such as Marbella, Velez Málaga or

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

. The current town of San Pedro de Alcántara was founded in 1860 by the charismatic 19th century politician and militar marquis of the Duero, Manuel Gutiérrez de la Concha e Irigoyen as a rural colony. It was the largest and most modern privately owned Spanish agricultural colony of its time. It spread from San Pedro de Alcantara to Cancelada (Estepona), village founded by the marquis too. The main crop was sugar cane, grown with the expertise of Cuban engineer Álvaro Reynoso, as the marqui's brother was Captain General of Cuba. It made use of new built damms,

acequia An acequia () or séquia () is a community-operated watercourse used in Spain and former Spanish colonies in the Americas for irrigation. Particularly in Spain, the Andes, northern Mexico, and the modern-day American Southwest particularly n ...

s, sugar cane mill ( ingenio), electric

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

and other farming machinery such as imported reapers or

threshing machine A threshing machine or a thresher is a piece of farm equipment that threshes grain, that is, it removes the seeds from the stalks and husks. It does so by beating the plant to make the seeds fall out. Before such machines were developed, threshi ...

s. It was contemporary to the Larios family sugar production in Torre del Mar and Nerja. In 1881

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wi ...

was introduced. The fields requested skilled and experienced farmers, and due to the good living conditions offered to the workers, many converged to the colony from the cities of Granada, Almería, Valencia and Murcia. After the death of the marquis the colony was sold by his partners to Azucarera Española, the Spanish sugar monopolistic trust. In 1933 Norberto Goizueta Díaz bought the

Guadalmina The river Guadalmina (from the Arabic for "Wadi (river) of the port") is a short coastal river of the Mediterranean basin in southern Spain that runs entirely within the Andalusian province of Málaga. Only in length, the Guadalmina rises in the ...

rural

cortijo A ''cortijo'' is a type of traditional rural dwelling (akin to the German ''Bauernhof'', also known as a Farmhouse in English) in the southern half of Spain, including all of Andalusia and parts of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha.Antonio Alc ...

. The 1950 census shows 612 inhabitants in Guadalimna, 274 in the Ingenio neighbourhood and 1.028 in San Pedro de Alcántara. The first steps of today's tourist location were taken in 1959 when the Guadalmina

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

was built, being the first golf course in Marbella, as Rio Real golf course opened in 1965. Also in 1959 the Hotel Cortijo Blanco was opened as a hotel and holiday homes for Spanish filmmakers and artists such as

Mingote Ángel Antonio Mingote Barrachina, 1st Marquess of Daroca (17 January 19193 April 2012), also simply known as Mingote, was a Spanish cartoonist, writer and journalist. He drew a daily cartoon in ABC since 1953 until his death in 2012. Biograph ...

Benito Perojo Benito Perojo González (Madrid, 14 June 1894 – Madrid, 11 November 1974) was a successful Spanish film director and film producer. Biography Son of José Perojo Figueras (1850–1908), a journalist and politician of Cuban origin, by his ...

. During the second half of the 20th century San Pedro de Alcántara grew as a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

close to the most important tourist destinations of Marbella and

Puerto Banús Puerto José Banús, more commonly known simply as Puerto Banús, is a marina located in the area of Nueva Andalucía, to the southwest of Marbella, Spain on the Costa del Sol. It was built in May 1970 by José Banús, a local property develope ...

. From 1991 to 2006 the GIL party governed Marbella, led by the charismatic Jesus Gil. During the Spanish property bubble many holiday homes, urbanizations and hotels were built around San Pedro de Alcantara. In 2006 the GIL city council was forcibly dissolved by prime minister

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (; born 4 August 1960) is a Spanish politician and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE). He was the Prime Minister of Spain being elected for two terms, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections ...

because of, amongst other cases of political, economic and urban zoning corruption, the

Operation Malaya Operation Malaya ( es, Operación Malaya) is a Spanish anti-corruption campaign in the southern resort city of Marbella. It began in 2006 and it is being carried out by the '' Policía Nacional'' under the direction of Judge Miguel Ángel Torres. ...

Heritage and monuments

* Las Bóvedas thermae (2nd century) * Vega del Mar early Christian basilica (4th century) * Las Bóvedas watchtower (16th century) * San Pedro de Alcantara 19th century colonial buildings: Ingenio theatre, church, villa de San Luis, Guadaiza cultural center, File:Edificio de la antigua alcoholera de San Pedro Alcántara.jpg, Ingenio theatre, former

distillery Distillation, or classical distillation, is the process of separating the components or substances from a liquid mixture by using selective boiling and condensation, usually inside an apparatus known as a still. Dry distillation is the heati ...

File:Marbella - San Pedro Alcántara, Plaza de la Iglesia y Tenencia de Alcaldía.jpg, Villa San Luis, current town council File:-que-ver-en-san-pedro-alcantara-la-joya-escondida-de-marbella.jpg, San Pedro de Alcantara church File:Trapiche de Guadaiza.jpg, Farming school, current Trapiche Guadaiza cultural center

Transport

It is served by the A7, motorway and AP7 and A-397 to Ronda. The closest airport is Malaga-Costa del Sol. The nearest recreational ports are

, Estepona and Marbella ports. The closest railway station is Malaga-María Zambrano for high speed railway to

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

and Madrid. It lies on the coastal road the N340/A7 and can be accessed as well as the toll motorway the AP7, 10 km west of Marbella in

, Southern

.It is easily accessed from either

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

and via the C339 from Sevilla and Ronda. The nearest airports of

and

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

are both within an hour's drive.

Urban bus

* L4: Puerto Banús - (El Ángel) - Nueva Andalucía - San Pedro. * L5: Puerto Banús - El Ángel - Nueva Andalucía - San Pedro - El Salto. * L7 (circular): San Pedro - Centro de Salud. * L13: Hospital Costa del Sol - Marbella Centro - San Pedro.

Intercity bus

San Pedro has connections to domestic destinations such as the major cities in Andalusia. * L-33 San Pedro - Benahavís * L-79 Marbella - San Pedro - Estepona * L-610 Málaga -

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

- Marbella - San Pedro - Estepona - La Línea

Culture

Semana Santa Holy Week ( la, Hebdomada Sancta or , ; grc, Ἁγία καὶ Μεγάλη Ἑβδομάς, translit=Hagia kai Megale Hebdomas, lit=Holy and Great Week) is the most sacred week in the liturgical year in Christianity. In Eastern Churches, w ...

is celebrated in San Pedro de Alcántara, along with other religious celebrations such as Corpus Christi,

Virgin of el Rocío The Virgin of El Rocío (also known as Madonna of El Rocío or Our Lady of El Rocío, es, Virgen del Rocío, ''Nuestra Señora del Rocío''; also, formerly, ''Nuestra Señora de los Remedios'' or ''Santa María de las Rocinas''

Virgin of Carmel Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or Virgin of Carmel, is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order, particularly within the Catholic Church. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Car ...

Carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...

, Toston day (roasting chesnuts), Christmas or

Three Kings The biblical Magi from Middle Persian ''moɣ''(''mard'') from Old Persian ''magu-'' 'Zoroastrian clergyman' ( or ; singular: ), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, also the Three Magi were distinguished foreigners in the G ...

which include small festivals, mass and processions carried out by the neighbours and enjoyed by visitors because of faith, tradition, or curiosity. In October the Feria de San Pedro de Alcantara honour the patron saint. They last for a week and take place in the fair grounds, former Juan Antonio Roca's Finca de la Caridad andalusian

Education

References

External links

Book Fair San Pedro de Alcántara.

San Pedro Alcantara City Guide & Tourism Information.
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Pedro Alcántara Municipalities in the Province of Málaga Towns in Spain