Middle Ages It was in Moorish times when the urban nucleus of Vélez-Málaga, whose name derives from: Ballax, Ballix, Aballix or Ballix-Malica.

The Muslim city was structured with the fortress in the highest point of the population, of great defensive and strategic value, extending in the western slope of the mount, in what today is known as La Villa.

Torre del Mar, on the other hand, was ceded to Ruiz López de Toledo, who rejected the offer and donated it, in turn, to the city of Vélez-Málaga, which also received the tahas of Bentomiz and Frigiliana and later Zalia .

Modern Age The new Christian authorities brought with them a new concept of city and shortly after the conquest there were substantial changes in their urban morphology.

In Torre del Mar most of the vine and citrus cultivations of the region were concentrated and from there they were sold and exported to northern Europe.

The watchtowers on the coast gave alarm to the detachment based in Vélez, which temporarily housed the Captaincy General de la Costa.

It also improved the insfraestuctura of the city and the ideas of the Enlightenment were announced with the creation in 1783 of the Economic Society of Friends of the Country.

The 19th century began with an epidemic of yellow fever, which killed more than 60 percent of the population in 1804 and because of which, the military assumed the municipal government.

In addition, the earthquake of 1884 devastated the area, which would only begin to recover economically with the expansion of sugar cane cultivation.

In spite of the calamities that occurred in this century, the city undergoes a great urban growth, expanding by the areas of Cruz Verde, the walks of Andalusia and Reñidero, El Cerro and the Cross of the Lamb.

But its municipal term was too small and the port was under the jurisdiction of Vélez, reason why six years later, in 1848, it is reincorporated to the mother township, according to records in the cabildo.

[3] At the beginning of the 20th century, the railroad arrived at Torre del Mar and later at Vélez-Málaga, both of which were communicated to the provincial capital through the Suburban Railways of Malaga.

From the 1960s onwards, the municipality joined the tourist boom, which radically transformed the town of Torre del Mar with the construction of large apartment blocks.

Extramuros, in what corresponds to the development from the sixteenth century, presents a Mudejar and baroque architecture, with palaces and characteristic residential examples, as well as a series of churches and convents around which the urban fabric was conformed, Giving rise to picturesque streets and with singular urban perspectives on the own monuments that configure it.

The Church of Santa María la Mayor, Gothic-Mudejar style, was built on the old Arab mosque, as shown by the minaret turned into a bell tower.

It is also noteworthy in the new area of expansion of the city, popularly known as the Barrio, the Church of San José that was built in 2007 and which came to replace a small chapel that was erected canonically in 1971 in Linares street .

Another is conserved in the Royal Gate of the Villa, in honor to the Virgin of the Desamparados, named for being the place where during the French invasion occurred several executions of sailors.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the hermit complex of Almayate, a settlement of a religious community where there are several cave dwellings excavated in the rock of which was an old Mozarabic church of the 8th and 9th centuries, as well as other works in stone.

Beniel Palace Villa Mercedes, is the last regional dwelling that is conserved in the Walk Larios of Torre del Mar.

Villa Mercedes: it is a stately house of late nineteenth century, of regionalist and Neomudéjar style, located in the Paseo Larios of Torre del Mar.

Nautical Club of Torre del Mar: building of the modern movement inscribed Well of Cultural Interest in 2006.

Sources: two stand out: the fountain of Fernando VI, of white marble and Renaissance style, located in the place of the Constitution.

Old train station: is an example of the functional architecture of the early twentieth century, built with the arrival of the Suburban Railways of Malaga to the municipality.

Notable sites include: A railway was built from Vélez that reached the village of Ventas de Zafarraya in August 1922.

Along the tramline are the state-of-the-art Torre del Mar hospital and a major shopping mall, El Ingenio whose main store is Eroski.

Neighbouring municipalities are: The city also includes an exclave, Lagos, which is bordered to the north by Sayalonga, to the east by Torrox, to the south by the Mediterranean, and to the west by Algarrobo.

Almayate, Benajarafe, Cajiz, Caleta de Velez, Chilches, Lagos, Mezquitilla, Trapiche, Triana, Torre del Mar, Valle-Niza, Vélez Málaga.

With 19 individual cofradias (brotherhoods) and processions involving ornate floats commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, it's one of the most notable in Andalusia.

The town has an active Flamenco music scene centred around its local peña (Peña Flamenca Niño de Vélez) and Flamenco Abierto,[7] an organisation that puts on regular performances across the Axarquía region which has recently attracted the likes of El Pele, Diego Carrasco & Family and Jorge Pardo.

Ethnic minority groups include Gypsies, a small Chinese community, Moroccans, sub-Saharan Africans, and expatriates from other European Union countries especially Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom.