In the Plaza de la Merced, in Malaga, Spain—a stone’s throw from the 19th-century town house where Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born—is a bronze statue of the artist sitting on a bench, staring at jacaranda and chestnut trees. The master of Cubism was born in the sun-drenched city of Malaga, the gateway to the Costa Del Sol in Andalusia, which has been ruled by the Phoenicians the Romans, the Moors and Catholics. With a Roman theatre, a Moorish fortress and a one-tower Cathedral that is still unfinished, the artist’s birthplace on the Mediterranean coast, is steeped in history and stories.
Many of the recurring motifs in Picasso’s works were inspired by what he saw and experienced in this town: the flamenco dancers he saw in small tablaos, the doves and pigeons that flutter over its squares, and the bulls in the bullring during his visits to the La Malagueta bullring with his father. “The intensity of light in this city, which enjoys more than 300 days of sun, shaped his perception. You can experience it in the vivid colours he has used in many of his paintings.
Though he left the city in 1891, moving to Galicia, he always had Andalusian Malaga in his heart,” explains local guide Trinidad Blanco Martinez. Not far from the house where he was born is the Baroque Santiago church, where young Picasso was baptised. This is the oldest church in Malaga dating back to 1490, which was built on the site of a former mosque in a mix of Gothic and Spanish Muslim styles, with exqui.