- The building that now houses Malaga’s iconic Gran Hotel Miramar is celebrating its 100th anniversary, consolidating its position as one of the city’s architectural, social and cultural landmarks.
- Its century-long history reflects the evolution of Malaga throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, from the splendour of the Belle Époque to its international reputation as a luxury tourist destination.
Inaugurated in 1926 by Their Majesties King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia, the building was originally named the Real Hotel Príncipe de Asturias, conceived to put Malaga on the map of major European tourist destinations. Its architecture, designed by architect Fernando Guerrero Strachan, offered a monumental design and bright spaces facing the Mediterranean, integrating luxury, comfort and landscape from its inception.
A building that adapts to history
Between 1926 and 1936, the hotel fully developed its original vocation as a luxury hotel, becoming the epicentre of the social, cultural and tourist life of bourgeois and cosmopolitan Malaga. Its halls hosted dances, banquets, large celebrations and events of national and international importance, symbolising a city open to the world and to progress.
With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), the building was seized and transformed into a blood hospital and military hospital, putting its facilities at the service of an essential humanitarian function during one of the hardest periods in the country’s contemporary history.
After the war ended, between 1939 and 1940, the hospital was closed and the building underwent a period of transition and refurbishment to restore its use as a hotel, in a particularly complex context marked by the post-war period, the Second World War and Spain’s international isolation.
Second phase as a hotel
On 21 December 1940, the Hotel Miramar officially reopened, marking the beginning of a second phase as a hotel that lasted until 1967. During the 1940s and 1950s, the hotel once again became a social and tourist landmark, gradually regaining its activity and hosting high-profile celebrations. During these years, major modernisation works were undertaken in 1954, followed by an extension in 1959.
From the 1960s onwards, the hotel business entered a slow decline, culminating in 1967 with the definitive closure of the hotel, giving way to a long period of abandonment, deterioration and debate about possible future uses.
Courthouse and institutional phase
After two decades of inactivity, in 1987 the building was acquired by the Ministry of Justice and transformed into the headquarters of the Malaga Courthouse, a function it performed for twenty years until 2007. This phase marked a complete adaptation of the interior spaces for administrative and judicial uses, integrating it into the institutional life of the city without losing its monumental character.
During this period, the Miramar Palace established itself as a public service building, reflecting the recent history of Malaga and bearing witness to the social changes that the city underwent.
Reborn as Gran Hotel Miramar
After the judicial activity was moved, the building fell into disuse once again until it was acquired by Hoteles Santos in 2008, thus beginning an ambitious restoration process. In 2013, comprehensive renovation work began with the aim of restoring the building to its original purpose as a grand hotel, respecting its historical and architectural value and incorporating contemporary luxury standards.
The project culminated in 2016 with the opening of the Gran Hotel Miramar in Malaga, a five-star luxury establishment that restores the building’s splendour and projects it into the future as a benchmark for hospitality, excellence and international prestige.
Today, on its 100th anniversary, the Gran Hotel Miramar represents the culmination of almost a century of history: a building that has managed to reinvent itself at every stage without losing its essential identity. True to its original vocation, it continues to be a place of encounter, prestige and hospitality facing the Mediterranean, deeply linked to the history and present of Málaga.
About HOTELES SANTOS
Hoteles Santos is a Spanish hotel chain that has been serving its customers for over 50 years. It currently has 12 establishments located in Baqueira, Barcelona, Granada, Madrid, Malaga, Mallorca, Murcia, Santander, Valencia and Zaragoza.
The company has successfully adapted to the changing world of high-end hospitality, embracing the challenges of innovation, continuously adapting its establishments to demand and investing in new technologies, all without losing that special, personal and friendly touch that only family businesses can offer, where both customers and employees are always treated with the utmost care.
Source: MUNKA Comunicación