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The Plaza de la Constitución has been the most important square in Málaga's old town since the end of the 15th century. For centuries it was the city's great public and political space, with institutions all around it such as the Casa Capitular or Town Hall, the Casa del Corregidor, the prison, the Audiencia and the Jesuit College.
In Nasrid times it was known as the Plaza de las Cuatro Calles (Square of the Four Streets), later it was the Plaza Mayor, and in 1812 it took the name Plaza de la Constitución. Today it is a natural way through between the pedestrian streets of the old town and the start of Calle Marqués de Larios.
It begins as a widening within the medina, the meeting point of four main thoroughfares, which explains its Nasrid name, Plaza de las Cuatro Calles.
With Christian Málaga it consolidates as the Plaza Mayor and becomes the city's new political and institutional centre, no longer tied to the Alcazaba and its surroundings.
In the first half of the 16th century it settles into almost its final layout, and the 1571 plan kept in the Municipal Archive already shows that very recognisable shape.
Over the course of the 16th century the headquarters of the institutions that governed the city were gradually installed here, along with public butcheries, notaries' offices, doorways for scriveners and shops.
The pillory was set up after the conquest, but it was soon moved to the seafront to leave the ground of the square free for civic uses.
In time, the city's urban weight is shared with new spaces such as the Alameda, wider and better drained, and the square loses part of its prominence from the 18th century onwards, without ever ceasing to be a landmark.
A key detail in that history is the Genoa Fountain, a late Renaissance piece remodelled in the 17th century, which appears tied to the civic use of the space and to its changes over time.
It is placed to one side to keep the centre clear, and that explains why the square works so well when there are events and staging set up.
For centuries the Casa Capitular or Town Hall and other administrative and judicial institutions stood here, and you can feel that in the character of the place.
It is worth a short detour because its central courtyard is a surprise, as is the way the passage's axes close off visually towards the side streets and towards the square through the entrance arch.
The passage keeps the symbolic weight of the Café de Chinitas, tied to the city's cultural memory, and it is one of those corners you visit for what it represents as much as for what you see.
An 18th-century classicist Baroque building declared a National Historic Monument in 1923, with a balcony-building type façade and running balconies designed for watching festivities from the square.
Holy Week
It remains a hub for civic celebrations and a much-used point when the centre is taken over by events and processional routes
Málaga Fair
The square is part of the atmosphere of the centre when the city throws itself into celebrations and crowds gather
Public events through the year
Because of its shape and its clear central space, it is a square that has historically adapted very well to events and celebrations
If you come along Calle Marqués de Larios, you cannot miss it: the street runs straight into the square, you walk on and the space opens up all at once.
If you are moving around the old town, the useful reference is that the square faces two very clear axes: towards Calle Granada, which sets the direction of the urban layout, and towards the old merchants' street, today Calle Santa María, heading for the Cathedral. With either of those references you end up in the Plaza de la Constitución without needing a map.
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