Sights · 44 of the best in Marbella
Cortijo Miraflores
Sugar mill, olive press and archaeology room
About Cortijo Miraflores
A sugar mill and olive press of 1704 at the top of Calle Ancha, now a cultural centre with an archaeology room and a garden of exotic trees. A quiet window on Marbella before tourism.
A working farmhouse
Walk up Calle Ancha beyond the Old Town into the Miraflores district and you reach a large old house that once worked as a trapiche, a sugar-cane mill, and as an animal-powered olive press, where harvesters from the surrounding area brought their crops. It was built in 1704 by Tomás Francisco Domínguez, as the two coats of arms over the entrance balcony testify.
Sugar cane was once a major crop on this coast, and the cortijo is a reminder of Marbella’s agricultural past, long before the beach hotels.
In 1850, a Marbella-born official in the Philippines brought back exotic trees that still shade the garden.
The garden
The front garden was laid out in 1756, but its most striking trees arrived in 1850, brought by Don Tomás Domínguez Artola, Intendant General of the Philippines. Among them are cycads, the sago palms of the tropics, which give the garden an unexpected, exotic air.
The archaeology room
Today Cortijo Miraflores is a municipal cultural centre with exhibitions. Its archaeology room is the best introduction to Roman and late Roman Marbella: three scale models show the villa of Río Verde, the baths of Guadalmina and the basilica of Vega del Mar. There are also a reconstructed Roman anchor stock, a ship’s cannon, an Admiralty-type anchor, a Roman amphora, an arrow slit from Marbella castle and a case devoted to the Neolithic.
Visiting
Entry and timings vary with the exhibitions, so check the town’s cultural agenda. Freiduría Miraflores, a fried-fish house nearby, makes a good lunch stop afterwards.
Our advice: visit before you go to Río Verde or Vega del Mar, so you see the sites first in miniature and know what to look for.
Why it's on our list
- Sugar mill of 1704
- Archaeology models
- Exotic garden
Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Cortijo Miraflores before you go.
Plan your visit
- Where Top of Calle Ancha, Miraflores
- Allow 45 minutes
- Check Exhibition times on the town’s cultural agenda
- Lunch Freiduría Miraflores nearby