Guadalmina - History

Guadalmina History

In 1933 Norberto Goizueta, a wealthy young man from Navarra, was sailing his yacht Serva La Bari (meaning Sevilla the Great) along the Mediterranean coast with his wife. He spied the tall sugar cane plantation of Guadalmina from the coast of Marbella, and decided to buy 350 acres of land to farm from the Compañia General Azucarera de España. Today this area is an upmarket residential development with large mansions, golf courses and hotels

The land was located between the Rio Guadalmina and Arroyo del Chopo and cost Norberto half a million pesetas (300,000 euros); later he purchased more adjacent hectares.

He built a huge ranch house down by the sea which is called Hacienda Guadalmina and was in a Californian style with several artifacts from the Seville Expo 29.

Seeing tourism develop in Marbella in the 1950s, Norberto changed his plans, and in 1959 the nine-hole Campo Sur links golf course was inaugurated (the first course after the 1925 Parador de Golf in Malaga), now part of the Real Club de Golf Guadalmina, along with the Hotel Guadalmina, which had its own swimming pool and bungalows near the sea shore.

The development was named Guadalmina after the river on its western boundary, whose name stems from the Arabic and means river of the mines (Spanish guadal = Arabic al-wadi, river).  

The estate was naturally divided into two section by the then N-340 (now A-7) coastal highway called Guadalmina Alta and Guadalmina Baja meaning high and low as a reference to the mountain or sea side of the road.    

Luis Gutierrez-Soto, one of the most respected Spanish architects of the 20th century, developed the urbanización (residential development), which is a mix of large villa plots with an unusually uniform 1000m2, and apartment blocks such as Parque del Sol on the beach. Many of the apartment blocks have a slight art nouveau style.

In 1973 the Guadalmina North course was completed under the supervision of Folco Nardi, and in 1995 the Real Club de Golf Guadalmina hosted the Spanish Championship.

Today Guadalmina is a prestigious residential area both on account of its established infrastructure and greenery and its 'old-school' atmosphere, and the Guadalmina Hotel is still there, along with two further golf courses, Many of the owners are from Madrid and come to Guadalmina for their summer holidays. Ex-President José Maria Aznar owns a house in the area. There is commercial centre with shops, banks, and a renowned range of restaurants. The Asador de Guadalmina achieved notoriety and cult status in January 2011 when the owner, Jose Eugenio Arias, refused to ban smoking in the restaurant and received the first closure order in Spain and faced a 150.000€ fine when new laws came in to force. (source).

On the eastern boundary and spanning the main road used to stand a copse of trees. These were removed in 1995 to make way for the Gill's emblematic Marbella entrance arch, which in turn was removed in 2007 to make way for the San Pedro underpass. 

The local beach is Playa Guadalmina and nearby are the Roman Baths. Guadalmina has three hotels, including Hotel Guadalmina Spa & Golf Resort.