Perfect ideas to enjoy in Torremolinos
11 August, 2020
Celebrate Tourism Day with a trip to Torremolinos
12 August, 2020
Film stars Brigitte Bardot and Frank Sinatra, artists like Picasso and Salvador Dalí, director Spike Lee, or actors Anthony Hopkins, Samuel L. Jackson and Laurence Fishburne, are among the familiar faces that you will see on wall murals around town, thanks to a new street art route that many are already enjoying uploading images to their social networks.
If you like graffiti or you are an art lover beyond the confines of the museums, you will love a visit to Torremolinos to see so many different stories exhibited on the walls, by murals artists Nesui SRC and others.
Brigitte Bardot, an icon of beauty at Plaza Costa del Sol
When you arrive at recently renewed Plaza Costa del Sol, you will be dazzled not only by the long pergola designed by architect Salvador Moreno Peralta, the magnificent sculpture Los Oficios by artist Elena Laverón, the shops and people walking, but also by the image of French actress Brigitte Bardot. It is painted on the facade of Elegance Adriano Hotel, and has become again the star of the photos of tourists and residents.
The actress spent some time in Torremolinos in 1957 when filming The Night Heaven Fell (Los Joyeros del Claro de Luna) and she was revolutionary for this coastal town that received a style icon. Even though some did not welcome her, she managed to win the heart of Torremolinos and she fell in love with this town, as she wrote in her memoirs. In her first visit here, there was a story about a donkey called Chorro that appeared with her in a scene in the film, and she was so fond of the animal that she wanted to take it to the hotel. Some people see Spanish famous actor and singer Marisol on this mural, but Marisol is not yet represented in any of our murals.
The author, mural artist Nesui SRC, is also revolutionary for Torremolinos thanks to his murals all over the town. One of his most well known art works is that in La Carihuela’s Avenida Carlota Alessandri, a long mural that gives new life to these walls.
Frank Sinatra, in La Carihuela
Another important point on this mural route is that reflecting The Voice. Sinatra was in Torremolinos a few years after Bardot, in 1964, in such controversial visit that Sinatra promised to never come back to Spain. Accommodated at Pez Espada Hotel while filming Von Ryan’s Express (El Coronel Von Ryan), he was arrested by the police at the hotel after an altercation with a photographer and a presumed actress that did not end well for the performer of My Way. The mural in La Carihuela’s Calle de los Perros 17 is dedicated to this great artist and his stories while in Torremolinos.
Street artists Pablo Sánchez Herguedos and Sergio Jiménez Bermejo created this mural to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Sinatra´s visit to this town. If you would, by the way, like to know more of his visit and other issues in which Torremolinos has been leader,read this post.
Avenida Carlota Alessandri and España Shopping Centre, two must visit places
If you love graffiti, go have a look at Avenida Carlota Alessandri, a street that has many of the graffities in Torremolinos. Picasso greeting in his charasteristic stripep top with a colourful background is one of the pieces of street and graffiti art that you can see here thanks to mural artist Nesui SRC.
After Picasso, there you will find a thoughtful Salvador Dalí wearing his hilarious moustache, maybe recalling the details of his stay in Castillo de Santa Clara Hotel together with Gala, his muse and wife, also involved in fascinating stories.
Here you will also see actor Anthony Hopkins with red background, a scary image like that in the film The Silence of the Lambs. But he is not the only actor reflected on the walls in Torremolinos, because artist Nesui SRC has also painted director Spike Lee and actors Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne or Tommy Lee Jones.
It is worth a visit to España Shopping Centre in the town centre to see actor Samuel L. Jackson painted on the wall. This whole area is amazing, you will not regret it.
New murals in Pasaje Begoña
Pasaje Begoña was an icon of modernity and a LGBTI icon in the 1960s, a place for freedom, the avant-garde at the time. Some remember John Lennon sitting in one of the 50 bars open in Torremolinos in those days. And some still remember the big police raid in 1971 which led to its decline, but fortunately it is now being revitalized.
The colour of the wall in the existing mural in Pasaje Begoña will take you back in time. Do not miss it, since it reflects much of the history of this alley that is now recreating its identity.
Apart from Sinatra, Bardot, and a good number of American actors, we will soon have on our walls actress Ava Gardner, who fell in love with the beaches of Torremolinos in the 1950s, and the local pop-rock band Danza Invisible, famous all over Spain since the 1980s.
