Marbella (UK: /mɑːrˈbeɪjə/ mar-BAY-yə,[1][2] US: /mɑːrˈbɛlə/ mar-BEL-ə,[3] Spanish pronunciation: [maɾˈβeʎa]) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia.

[9] The Marbella municipality occupies a strip of land that extends along forty-four kilometres (27 miles) of coastline of the Penibético region, sheltered by the slopes of the coastal mountain range, which includes the Bermeja, Palmitera, Royal, White and Alpujata sub-ranges.

[11] North of the plain is an area of around 100 and 400 m (330 and 1,300 feet) above sea level, encompassing low, rolling hills, with higher foothills and steeper slopes approaching the mountains behind.

Marbella has a subtropical Mediterranean climate[13] (Köppen: Csa) with humid, very mild winters (for European standards) and warm to hot, dry summers.

[27] The population is concentrated in two main centres: Marbella and San Pedro Alcántara; the rest is scattered in many developments in the districts of Nueva Andalucia and Las Chapas, located along the coast and on the mountain slopes.

[citation needed] Traditionally the people of Marbella have been called "marbelleros" in the local vernacular and "marbellenses" in more formal registers; these names have appeared in dictionaries and encyclopedias.

[31] The existence of a Roman population centre in what is now the El Casco Antiguo (Old Town) is suggested by three Ionic capitals embedded in one section of the Murallas del Castillo (Moorish castle walls), that reused materials of a building from earlier times.

[33] During the period of Islamic rule, after the Normans lay waste to the coast of Málaga in the 10th century, the Caliphate of Córdoba fortified the coastline and built a string of several lighthouse towers along it.

The situation was compounded by the widespread crisis of traditional agriculture and by the epidemic of phylloxera blight in the vineyards,[45] causing Marbella to suffer high unemployment, an increase in poverty, and the starvation of many day labourers.

The associated infrastructure built for the installation of the foundry of El Angel in 1871 by the British-owned Marbella Iron Ore Company[46] temporarily relieved the situation, and even made the city a destination for immigrants, increasing its population.

However, the company did not survive the worldwide economic crisis of 1893, and closed its doors in that year due to the difficulty of finding a market for the magnetite iron ore it mined.

Jaime de Mora y Aragón, a Spanish bon vivant and brother to Fabiola, Queen of the Belgians, as well as Adnan Khashoggi, were frequent visitors.

Princess Marie-Louise of Prussia (great-granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II) and her husband Count Rudolf "Rudi" von Schönburg–Glauchau eventually worked closely with the new proprietors, the Shamoon family, who took over the Marbella Club Hotel from Prince Alfonso.

In 1973, exiled dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, who had left Cuba with a fortune estimated at between $100 and $300 million and lived extravagantly in various Iberian resorts, died of a heart attack there.

[64] Around the square are arranged three remarkable buildings: the town hall, built in 1568 by the Catholic Monarchs in Renaissance style, the Mayor's house, which combines Gothic and Renaissance elements in its façade, with a roof of Mudejar style and fresco murals inside, and the Chapel of Santiago, the oldest religious building in the city, built earlier than the square and not aligned with it, believed to date from the 15th century.

The so-called Nuevo Barrio (New Town), separated from the walled city by the Arroyo de la Represa, has no monumental buildings but retains its original layout and much of its character in the simple whitewashed houses with their tiled roofs and exposed wooden beams, orchards and small corrals.

Urbanisations in the area's sea side are Alhambra del Mar, La Alcazaba, Las Torres, Los Verdiales, Marbellamar, Marina Marbella, Oasis, Rio Verde and Santa Margarita.

[70][71] At the heart of San Pedro Alcántara are two industrial buildings of the 19th century: the Trapiche de Guadaiza and the sugar mill, which now houses the Ingenio Cultural Centre.

[72] The important archaeological site of Cerro Colorado is located near Benahavis; it features a chronologically complex stratigraphy that begins in the 4th century BC within a Mastieno (ancient Iberian ethnicity of the Tartessian confederation) area, then a town identified as Punic, and finally a Roman settlement.

A series of domestic structures built behind the city walls, and corresponding to these different stages of occupation recorded in the archaeological sequence of the site, characterise the settlement as being fortified.

[74][75] Bronze Age utensils including plates, carinated bowls, lamps and other ceramics of Phoenician and indigenous Iberian types have been found, as well as a few Greek examples.

Deputy Mayor Isabel Garcia Marcos was arrested at Malaga's airport en route to a honeymoon in Russia at this time, and police found over €360,000 in cash in a safe in her home.

On 8 April 2006, the Spanish Senate unanimously approved the report of the General Commission of Autonomous Communities and suspended the city council, the first time such a course of action had occurred in Spain since democracy's restoration.

[83] Spain's Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, head of the national PSOE, appointed a committee of auditors to run Marbella temporarily, as well as unravel the financial machinations.

[88] During the complex, three-year trial (which included over 300 hours of hearings and 400 witnesses), evidence showed that under a scheme masterminded by Roca (a formerly unemployed builder who ran the city's planning department in the 1990s), building permits were issued in exchange for envelopes of cash, and the money then illegally laundered.

At the height of his wealth he was one of the richest men in Andalucia, having accumulated several hotels, ranches with more than 103 thoroughbred horses and fighting bulls, a private jet, a helicopter, 14 vintage cars, 5 kilos of jewellery and a 275 piece art collection including Miro paintings.

[92] However, although Marbella's population had boomed to approximately 160,000 residents during the previous fifteen years, neither additional schools nor health centres were built; the city's infrastructure remained virtually unchanged since 1991.

Compared to the rest of Andalusia, the volume of production in Marbella is higher than that of most other municipalities with similar population, ranking even above the capitals of Almería, Huelva and Jaén.

They connect Marbella to other urban centres, such as Málaga and its airport, nearby towns in the interior (Benahavis, Ojen, Ronda), the Campo, including Gibraltar (La Linea and Algeciras), some major cities in Andalusia (Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Jerez, Granada, Jaen, Seville, and Úbeda),[100] and Mérida in Extremadura.

[118] Marbella is particularly noted for the presence of aristocrats, celebrities and wealthy people;[119] it is a popular destination for luxury yachts,[120] and increasingly so for cruise ships, which dock in its harbour.