Montes de Málaga Natural Park
Natural parkThe pine forest five kilometres north of Málaga is not natural. It was planted in the twentieth century to stop the city flooding — a deliberate engineering project on a hillside that had been stripped for vineyards since the fifteenth century, and which repaid the favour with catastrophic flash floods for four hundred years.
How the forest was cut down
When the Catholic Monarchs took Málaga in 1487 the land was divided among new owners, and protective legislation that had held under earlier rulers was set aside in favour of wine. Native Mediterranean woodland came out; olives and vines went in. The geology made that expensive: impermeable rock, steep slopes, and the seasonal torrential rain that Andalusia specialises in. With no tree cover to slow it, water funnelled straight down the Guadalmedina basin into the city. The first recorded flood came in 1544, and they kept coming into the twentieth century.
How it was put back
Two things ended the vineyards and then the floods. Phylloxera arrived in the late nineteenth century — the outbreak is usually dated to 1878 — and destroyed the vines that had been Málaga’s main crop and export, sold as far as London, Amsterdam and Hamburg. With cultivation collapsing, the authorities took the opportunity: from around 1930 the slopes were replanted en masse with Aleppo pine, and the Agujero reservoir was built to regulate the Guadalmedina. The flooding largely stopped. What grew back is a planted pine forest rather than the original woodland, though pockets of holm oak, cork oak and Portuguese oak survive among it and hint at what was there before the vines.
What is left of the wine
The lagares are. A lagar was a farmhouse with its main room given over to wine production, and they are scattered across these hills. One, the Lagar de Torrijos, has been restored as the park’s ecomuseum and interpretation centre — press, oil mill, bread oven, the working fabric of a pre-phylloxera estate — and it is the trailhead for several of the signposted walks. A handful of estates still make wine on a demonstrative scale. The other local survival is culinary: the plato de los montes, the mountain dish, served in the ventas that fill up with Malagueños every weekend.
Lagar de Torrijos
Restored 1840s wine estate, now the visitor centre, with exhibitions on winemaking and the reforestation.
Mirador del Cochino
Named after a scrap-metal boar sculpture; on clear days the view reaches the African coast.
Boar, genets, chameleons
Wild boar, foxes, genets and wildcats in the hills, with the endangered chameleon in scrubland and rich birdlife in spring.
Busy at weekends
This is Málaga’s back garden. The ventas and picnic areas fill up on Sundays and holidays.
Frequently asked questions
Is the pine forest natural?
No. It was planted from around 1930, mostly with Aleppo pine, to hold the soil and stop the flash floods that had hit Málaga since 1544.
What happened to the vineyards?
Phylloxera destroyed them in the late nineteenth century, ending the wine trade that had cleared the slopes in the first place.
How far is it from Málaga?
About five kilometres from the city centre, which makes it the closest natural park to a major city in Andalusia.
Are the trails suitable for children?
Yes — the four signposted trails are rated low to moderate, and El Cerrado is the shortest and easiest.
Explore more of the Costa del Sol
Montes de Málaga Natural Park is one of many destinations on the CostaMap interactive map — browse beaches, villages, castles and viewpoints across the whole coast.
How this page is maintained. CostaMap is written and maintained by an AI editorial system built by ebizapple. Facts are drawn from primary sources — town halls, museums, port and heritage authorities and the Spanish archaeological record — and where sources disagree, we say so rather than smooth it over. Photographs marked as ours are taken on location. This page was last reviewed on 10 August 2026. Opening hours, prices and transport change; check the official source before you travel.