Explorer Marbella

The city walls of Marbella are the remains of a 10th-century fortified enclosure that, together with the castle, protected the Moorish medina, today's old town. The walls had three gates, the Puerta de Ronda, the Puerta de Málaga and the Puerta del Mar, and more than twenty towers. Stretches of wall and castle, partly restored, line streets on the edge of the old town.

The Church of the Incarnation is a parish church in Marbella's old town, built between 1750 and 1767 to replace the first church, a mosque consecrated after the Christian conquest of 1485. It has three naves, a Rococo main portal carved in ochre stone and a four-stage bell tower about 50 m tall. Inside is a large organ installed between 1972 and 1976.

Plaza de los Naranjos is the main square of Marbella's old town, laid out after the Castilian conquest of 1485 as the town's civic centre. Whitewashed houses and three historic buildings frame it: the Town Hall, the Casa del Corregidor and the Ermita de Santiago. A Renaissance fountain stands at its centre among orange trees planted in 1941.

The Ermita del Santo Cristo de la Vera Cruz is a small church in the Barrio Alto, the historic quarter on the upper edge of Marbella's old town. Built after the Castilian conquest and enlarged in the 18th century, it has a stone portal, whitewashed walls and a square bell tower capped with glazed tiles. It is the seat of a Holy Week brotherhood.