Torremolinos Wiki

Torremolinos Facts

Torremolinos is a municipality on the Costa del Sol of the Mediterranean, immediately to the west of the city of Málaga, in the province of Málaga in the autonomous region of Andalusia in southern Spain. A poor fishing village before the growth in tourism beginning in the late 1950s, Torremolinos was the first of the Costa del Sol resorts to develop.

It is very popular with British tourists and has a large British expatriate population. In the past the influx of younger British tourists has caused controversy. Areas of the town are dominated by high-rise development.

In addition to its tourism sector, Torremolinos is known locally for its vibrant nightlife, particularly its numerous bars and clubs catering to the gay community.

History

Archaeological finds including human bones, tools and pottery prove that Torremolinos area was settled as early as the Neolithic Age. Some remnants are neanderthalians and dated 150 000 years-old by radiocarbone.

According to the Egyptian Greek geographer Ptolemy, the Phoenicians had founded here a colony named Saduce, but most likely were the Romans to found the current town, as shown by findings of edifices and a necropolis (from whose size it has been deduced that the settlement had around 2,000 inhabitants). They also built the road joining Cadiz with Málaga, passing through Torremolinos.

With the Moorish conquest of Spain, were introduced the mills from which the town takes its name (meaning “Tower of the Mills”). However, at the time the population was reduced; the tower was built by the Nasrid rulers of Granada starting from 1300. After the fall of Granada, the town remained subject to North African pirate attacks which lasted from the 18th century; during theWar of Spanish Succession, the town was attacked by an Anglo-Dutch flotilla under the British admiral George Rooke and almost entirely destroyed. A document of 1769 lists a population of 106 in the town.

The mills and the city were rebuilt from the early 20th century. The mill industry, however, started to decline in the 1920s. It was replaced by an increasing flourishing tourist interest starting from 1928, especially due to English visitors. The first gay bar in Spain, Toni’s Bar, was founded in Torremolinos in 1962. The Spanish regime reacted to the free lifestyle of the city with arrests of homosexuals and other repressions during the 1970s.

In popular culture

• Part of James A. Michener’s 1971 novel The Drifters takes place in Torremolinos.
• Monty Python’s Flying Circus had a sketch called “Travel Agent”, which aired November 16, 1972, that makes a reference to Torremolinos in the context of visiting British package tourists.
• The Belgian band Sttellla wrote a song about Torremolinos (simply called “Torremolinos”), which is their biggest hit to date.
• Terrormolinos (a play on Torremolinos) is a text adventure game for various 1980s computer platforms.
• The end of the movie Torremolinos 73 was filmed in Torremolinos. Torremolinos 73 in the movie means the name of an adult movie shot in Torremolinos in 1973.
• The Soft Cell song “Memorabilia” mentions Torremolinos.

Famous residents

• Alvin Karpis (1907-1979), Depression-era outlaw, lived his last years in Torremolinos after being released from jail by US authorities.
• Nina Zhivanevskaya, bronze medal winner for Spain in 100 metre backstroke at the 2000 Summer Olympics.