Mijas ( ; ) is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in the

Province of Málaga The province of Málaga ( ) is located in Andalusia, Spain. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and by the provinces of Cádiz to the west, Seville to the northwest, Córdoba to the north, and Granada to the east. The province ...

, in the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

. Located on the southeastern coast of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, Mijas belongs to the region of

Costa del Sol Occidental Costa del Sol Occidental (English: "Western Coast of the Sun") is one of the nine Comarcas of Spain, ''comarcas'' (county) in the province of Málaga, Andalusia, southern Spain. This comarca was established in 2003 by the Government of Andalusia. ...

. Its center is a typical Andalusian white-washed village, Mijas Pueblo, located on a mountainside about 430 metres or 1,476 feet

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

, in the heart of the

Costa del Sol The Costa del Sol (; literally "Coast of the Sun") is a region in the south of Spain in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns and communities along the coastline of the Province of ...

region. The municipality has three nuclei, gathering the majority of its population: * Mijas Pueblo (a hillside village, administrative center of the municipality) * La Cala de Mijas (a coastal village and a seaside resort) * Las Lagunas (a suburban and commercial area to the north and west of, and largely integrated with,

Fuengirola Fuengirola () is a city on the Costa del Sol in the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is located on the central coast of the province and integrated into the region of the Costa del Sol and the Com ...

). Mijas Costa is used to denominate the coastal area of Mijas, especially the villages Calahonda, Riviera and La Cala de Mijas. The economy of Mijas is primarily based on tourism, featuring local historical museums and many souvenir shops. The municipality has seven

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

courses (four more are under construction), including the La Cala Resort, which is the biggest golf resort in Spain. Agricultural products include potatoes,

cereals A cereal is a grass cultivated for its edible grain. Cereals are the world's largest crops, and are therefore staple foods. They include rice, wheat, rye, oats, barley, millet, and maize (Corn). Edible grains from other plant families, suc ...

, and avocados.

History

Mijas was founded in prehistoric times by the Tartessians. The remains of the original fortification are still visible on parts of the exterior wall of the city. The area's mineral wealth attracted ancient Greeks and Phoenicians to the village, as described in

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

's second-century ''Geography''. The Romans, who kept up a lively commerce with Mijas, knew it as ''Tamisa''. Roman domination was later replaced with the

Visigoth The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...

s' rule after 714 AD. The Visigoths, in turn, were succeeded by the

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

. The Moors allowed the village inhabitants to preserve their property, religion, and customs in exchange for a third of their goods from agriculture, livestock, and farming. It was also the Moors who abbreviated the name of Tamisa to ''Mixa'', which later became modern day ''Mijas''. During the time of the

Emirate of Córdoba An emirate is a territory ruled by an emir, a title used by monarchs or high officeholders in the Muslim world. From a historical point of view, an emirate is a political-religious unit smaller than a caliphate. It can be considered equivalen ...

, the village was conquered by Umar ibn Hafsun. The village remained under the rule of Bobastro, who was defeated by Abd al-Rahman III in the late 9th century. In 1487, Mijas resisted the attacks of the

Catholic monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Isabella I of Castile, Queen Isabella I of Crown of Castile, Castile () and Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand II of Crown of Aragón, Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of ...

during the siege of Málaga. After Málaga fell, the inhabitants surrendered and most were sold as slaves. During the

Revolt of the Comuneros The Revolt of the Comuneros (, "War of the Communities of Castile") was an uprising by citizens of Crown of Castile, Castile against the rule of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles I and his administration between 1520 and 1521. At its hei ...

a few decades later, Mijas remained loyal to the Spanish crown, which granted it the title of ''Muy Leal'' ("Very Loyal"). Soon after,

Joanna of Castile Joanna of Castile (6 November 1479 – 12 April 1555), historically known as Joanna the Mad (), was the nominal queen of Castile from 1504 and queen of Aragon from 1516 to her death in 1555. She was the daughter of Queen Isabella I of Castile ...

promoted it to the status of

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

(town) and it was exempt from royal taxes. During this period and into the 19th century, Mijas suffered from intense pirate activity along the coast. It was this pirate activity that motivated the construction of the watchtowers that still stand today.

Modern age

In the 19th century, Mijas's livelihood was mainly agriculture, fishing, and some farming and mineral extraction. Grape vines were the main source of wealth in Mijas until the

Phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); orig ...

plague destroyed all of the vineyards. Also important to Mijas's economy was paper production. Some mills located in the area of ''Osunillas'' date back to 1744. The mid-1800s were a productive time for local industry, thanks to the arrival of

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

’s paper-makers, carpenters from Alcoy (an Alicante’s Spanish town), and a mop, which created new functional links among manufacturers. Especially notable were the " paper beds", which were very useful in

Málaga Málaga (; ) is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 591,637 in 2024, it is the second-most populo ...

because they were used as raisin wrappers. An important historical event happened on December 2, 1831. General Torrijos landed at the beach ''El Charcón'' with 52 men. They crossed Mijas, climbed the hill to the top and took refuge at a house on ''Alqueria'' in ''Alhaurin de la Torre'', on Molinas County property. They were surrounded by troops, sent by the governor Gonzales Moreno. Torrijos and his companions were shot on the San Andres beaches on December 11, 1831. In 1873 a road opened between Mijas and Fuengirola, ending the segregation between the two towns which had been in effect since 1841. However, the village remained isolated until the arrival of the first newspaper, Second Republic. There was no phone service until 1953 and the town's architecture consisted mostly of shacks. The population was scattered across the countryside, which consisted of small farms. During the post-war period, hunger and unemployment increased. The only work in the area was the collection of grass for the

esparto Esparto, halfah grass, or esparto grass is a fiber produced from two species of perennial grasses of north Africa, Spain and Portugal. It is used for crafts, such as cords, basketry, and espadrilles. '' Stipa tenacissima'' and '' Lygeum spar ...

, but the effects of droughts weakened even this industry. During this era, Mijas also was the scene of anti-Franco army operations because of the support and respect of the army in this area. In the 1950s, an

asbestos Asbestos ( ) is a group of naturally occurring, Toxicity, toxic, carcinogenic and fibrous silicate minerals. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous Crystal habit, crystals, each fibre (particulate with length su ...

factory was built to reduce unemployment and the first small hotel was built because of the growing fame of the

. With the advent of tourism, the towns of La Cala and Las Lagunas began construction of urban residential areas, resulting in the birth of Chollocasa, Cala, and many more cities. Las Lagunas appeared out of nowhere from the interior of a farming community and La Cala was a rural village with just 19 farming families.

Climate

The climate of Mijas, due to its proximity to the sea, enjoys semi-tropical temperatures with winter days being mostly warm/hot and agreeable, and days of hot/very hot weather from May until October. The months of July and August are very hot with temperatures at the end of July and early August hovering around 30C. Winter nights can be occasionally chilly but with only an occasional light frost. The rainfall is below 600 millimetres (24 inches) per year and occurs mainly between October and April. The town boasts some 2,920 hours of sunshine per year. The climate changes gradually with increasing elevation in the mountains. Temperatures can drop to . In the peaks, over high, some ice may form in winter, while precipitation increases to almost 800 mm (32 in).

Education

The areas of Mijas and Fuengírola have a good state education system as does all the Costa del Sol. There are also plenty of private fee-paying International colleges for all ages, within easy reach. The local International, private fee-paying college is St Anthony´s College Mijas.

References

External links