The Town Hall of Malaga, also known as the Casona del Parque, is a 20th century building which houses the headquarters of the Malaga Town Hall. It is located on the Paseo del Parque, a space resulting from the enlargement of the port in the mid-19th century, and surrounded by the Puerta Oscura Gardens and other emblematic buildings of Malaga such as the Bank of Spain, the Palacio de la Aduana or the Rectorate of the University of Malaga (former Post Office building).
The building, in neo-baroque style with modernist details, is the work of the architects Manuel Rivera Vera and Fernando Guerrero Strachan. Mayor Ricardo Albert laid the first stone on 31 December 1911, and it was completed in 1919. On 11 April of that year, the City Council took possession of the building. Inside the building there are some decorated rooms such as the Salón de los Espejos (Hall of Mirrors) and the Salón de Plenos (Plenary Hall).
Declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2010, the protection extends to the Gardens of Pedro Luis Alonso, designed by Fernando Guerrero-Strachan Rosado, and which act as the closure of the block and the rationalist project carried out in the city in the mid-19th century.
The Malaga Town Hall first had its headquarters in the Postigo de los Abades, located behind the Cathedral. In the 16th century it was moved to the Plaza Mayor square. It was also temporarily located in Calle de la Compañía, in the Convent of San Agustín and in the Palace of Zea-Salvatierra. In 1897, faced with the growth of administrative demand in the city, the council considered the idea of building a new headquarters in the Plaza de la Marina, but finally decided on the land reclaimed from the sea with the reform of the port and the creation of the Parque de Málaga as an extension of the Alameda Principal.
In 1911, a competition was called for projects for the new town hall, which initially also included new buildings for the Provincial Court and the examining magistrates' courts, which in the end were not carried out. Two projects were presented: that of the Catalan architects Domènech y Guardia and that of the Malaga architects Fernando Guerrero Strachan and Manuel Rivera Vera, which were to be the winners.
Work began in December of that same year, although it was not until 11 April 1919 that the building was officially inaugurated by Mayor Manuel Romero Raggio. The total cost of the work was 1,519,602.35 pesetas. The Town Hall was the first building on Paseo del Parque. It was followed by the Casa de Correos y Telégrafos in 1923, and the Banco de España, completed in 1936.
The Casa Consistorial building in Malaga has a rectangular floor plan with an arcaded courtyard with rectangular pillars and semicircular arches in the centre, around which there are galleries that serve as communication elements between the different rooms.
In volume, the building consists of three floors separated by cornices, raised on a plinth that bridges the unevenness of the terrain, and ending in a flat roof bordered by a parapet. This is completed by four square bodies, arranged like towers at each of the corners, and covered by vaults clad with sheets of zinc sheeting.
The four façades of the building, opened by numerous openings of different sizes which increase in number and decrease in size towards the upper floors, give the building a dynamic appearance in continuous movement, as a result of the advances and retreats of the towers and of each of the access porticoes.
The main façade, with access from Cervantes Avenue, consists of three floors: the first, raised on a podium with a triple staircase, consists of a segmental arch flanked by Corinthian columns, reminiscent of the city's ancient gates, through which the main door of the building is accessed; On the first floor there is a large balcony in the style of a classical temple, with paired Ionic columns crowned by a triangular pediment with a high relief in the tympanum, the work of Francisco Palma García, depicting a matron, symbol of the city, surrounded by figures allegorising Malaga's main economic activities. The work of the same sculptor are the figures of heralds of the different kingdoms of Spain that crown the tops of the building; the top floor of the main façade, standing out in height from the rest of the building, houses the clock tower, the latter dating from the same period as the construction of the building, made in the House of Moisés Díaz de Palencia.
The side façades, with access from Calle Roma and Calle Francisco Bejarano Robles, on the east and west sides, respectively, repeat the compositional scheme of the main façade: a portico on a podium with access steps, with Ionic columns on pedestal, advanced with respect to the façade, and on which a first floor rises like a balcony with a stone railing, to which opens a semicircular arch with a raised keystone and decoration on the spandrels, all topped by a framed porthole and opening on the third floor of the building. The rear façade, on Calle Guillén Sotelo, is characterised by its unornamented appearance, and is enclosed by a parapet with railings.
The extensive decorative programme of the façades continues with the sculptures of the atlantes on corbels located on the four towers of the building, symbols of the taxpayers, and the twelve reliefs on the side façades allegorising industry, agriculture, fishing and navigation, commerce and the railways, the arts, etc., as key activities in the progress and wealth of the city, the work of Diego García Carreras, author of the pairs of heraldic lions and bronze vases that decorate the main staircase inside the building.
The imperial staircase, with its marble balustrade, is illuminated by three translucent skylights and five stained glass windows of remarkable artistic value, made by the Paris firm Maumejean, which evoke historical scenes such as the foundation of Malaga by the Phoenicians, the entry of the Catholic Monarchs, the rebellion against the Admiralty Court of the Regency of Cardinal Cisneros and the entry of Philip IV into the city.
On the first floor, the main floor, are the most noble and ornate rooms in the building: the Plenary Hall and the Hall of Mirrors.
The ceiling of the Plenary Hall is decorated with two important allegorical paintings in tempera and oil on canvas attached to the wall. One of them, the work of the painter César Álvarez Dumont (1921-1922), represents the episodes of the landing of the wounded from Africa who were helped by the people of Málaga and the events that took place in the streets of Málaga in 1868, which earned the city the award of the mottoes "Siempre Denodada" ("Always Bold") and "Muy Benéfica" ("Very Beneficent") for its coat of arms. The second, by Antonio Muñoz Degrain (1918), evokes the rescue of the shipwrecked crew of the German frigate Gneissenau at Christmas 1900, the origin of the heraldic motto "Very Hospitable". The rest of the hall is made up of paired pilasters that modulate the walls and extend towards the ceiling in pairs of rectilinear sashes, between which are placed the pictorial works of "Culture and Eloquence" by Guerrero del Castillo, "Order and Hard Work" by José Fernández Alvarado, "Honesty and Justice" by Joaquín Capulino Jáuregui and "Freedom and Civility" by Federico Bermúdez Gil.
To complete the decorative programme of the Plenary Hall, six commemorative marble plaques are inserted in the walls: two plaques are the work of A. Carmona, the first commemorating the concession of the Torremolinos Water to Malaga, dated 1918, and the second in homage to Alfonso XII and Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, dated 1886; four more plaques, of unknown authorship, in homage to the Spanish Army for the victory in the Battle of Tetuán on 6 February 1860; a tribute to the First Marquis of Larios for his contribution to the development of the city of Malaga in 1891; a tribute to José María Torrijos and his companions who were shot in 1904; and the last one, in homage to the visit of King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofia of Greece on the occasion of the celebration of the 5th centenary of the constitution of the Municipal Council of Malaga in 1989.
The Reception and Festivities Hall, or Hall of Mirrors, was decorated with portraits of different important figures in the history of the city, painted by different painters in oil on canvas attached to the wall.
The first floor is completed with the Salón de Sesiones and a gallery, known as the Galería de Alcaldes, which houses an important collection of portraits of the city's mayors, which form part of the collection of movable property linked to the Bien.