Rincón de la Victoria

The municipal territory of Rincón de la Victoria is bordered by the Totalán stream on the west and by that of San Millán on the east, and there are two other streams, the Granadillas and Benagalbón; all of these have only seasonal flow. Moving inland from the coastal strip, there are numerous elongated hills on which olive, almond, and carob trees and vineyards predominate in a landscape that is typical of La Axarquía but without great elevations, the highest peak being the Salazar hill at 512 metres.

This municipality is made up of several population centres: Benagalbón, five kilometres into the interior; La Cala; Torre de Benagalbón; Aguirre; Los Millares and several others with less population. In the last 20 years, practically all of these communities, especially Rincón de la Victoria and La Cala, have experienced spectacular growth due mainly to their proximity to the city of Málaga and to improvements in their transportation links. What were originally second homes for many residents of the capital have thus become their main residences.

This does not make Rincón de la Victoria just an extension of Málaga, although its proximity is an advantage. It has a life of its own and also very dynamic tourism and commerce.

This was one of the first territories in the province of Málaga to be settled by humans, at least judging by the data that is available to date, and is one of the best documented in La Axarquía due to the Paleolithic paintings and fossil remains that have been found at the El Tesoro cave and the no less interesting Bronze Age relics found at the La Victoria cave.

It is known that around the year 550 B. C. a Punic-Phoenician settlement was established on the Loma de Benagalbón (Hill of Benagalbón), and later the Romans also established themselves in this area as is shown by the mosaics and ruins of bathhouses discovered here. This tends to corroborate the description of the historian Pliny in the first century, who took note of the existence of a fortress built as a defence against possible invasions from the sea. It is more than probable that around this fortress the Arabs founded what is today Rincón de la Victoria and called it Bezmiliana, which would have been the name given to it by the Romans with some variation by the Arabs.

According to the description of the eleventh century Muslim El Idrissi, ancient Bezmiliana (Bizilyana), of which practically nothing remains today, had a fishing port, a medina (central village district), a mosque and a wall protecting the town. The scant remains of the town are still visible in the area known as El Castellón, on the Benagalbón road.

According to some Christian accounts, it seems that the inhabitants of these districts abandoned the place ahead of the advancing Christian troops, since when they were en route to Málaga from Vélez Málaga they found the village depopulated. Towards the end of the fifteenth century or the beginning of the sixteenth, some 120 persons arrived in this area with the objective of repopulating it, but these new villagers also abandoned the area even before the Moorish rebellion of 1569. According to some historians, this was due to a plague epidemic, to which might be added the bad relations with the Moorish population, constantly more oppressed by the Christians, and the continual invasions from the sea.

Construction was begun in 1776 near the ruins of Bezmiliana on the Bezmiliana fortress or castle that was intended to defend this entire section of the coast, in this case from the English. Under the shelter of this huge project small structures began to spring up that would shortly form a population centre, whose inhabitants devoted themselves to fishing. It would be considered a sub-district of Benagalbón, the community that would continue to be the municipality’s nucleus of population until 1906 when the population of Rincón de la Victoria was much greater than that of Benagalbón. Nevertheless, it was not until 1950 that the Town Hall was officially located in Rincón de la Victoria. The origin of the name is that the territory occupied by the village belonged to the La Victoria convent.

How to Get There

Due to its coastal location, the only route to Rincón de la Victoria is the Mediterranean Expressway (A-7; N-340). When it gets to the village it splits into two branches but either can be used. If you are coming from the Western Costa del Sol you should go towards Motril-Almería, and if coming from the Eastern Costa del Sol you should go towards Málaga-Cádiz.