San Pedro Alcántara

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.

[1] 16th century drawings by Anton van den Wyngaerde commissioned by Filip II show the thermae, next to which the Las Bovedas watchtower was built.

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, acequias, sugar cane mill (ingenio), electric power plant and other farming machinery such as imported reapers or threshing machines.

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.

[6] During the second half of the 20th century San Pedro de Alcántara grew as a town close to the most important tourist destinations of Marbella and Puerto Banús.

In 2006 the GIL city council was forcibly dissolved by prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero because of, amongst other cases of political, economic and urban zoning corruption, the Operation Malaya.