A Visit to the Picasso Museum in the Palacio de Buenavista, Malaga
The Palacio de Buenavista is a national monument, built between 1516 and 1542, and is a wonderful example of 16th Century Andalucian architecture. It is situated on Calle San Agustin right in the centre of the old part of the city.
The Palacio is also the home of the Picasso Museum. The collection of sketches, paintings, ceramics and drawings trace Picasso's career from his earliest academic days right through to his latest paintings in the 1970's. There are over 200 works all donated by his daughter in law, Christine and his grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso on long term loan.
Picasso was born in 1881 and died in 1973. His earlier works displayed date back to his teenage years, 1896, and then take us through his Blue Period starting in 1901, Rose Period - 1905, Cubism - 1907, Synthetic Cubism - 1913 and Surrealist -1925. There are examples of his ceramic art dating back to 1947 and his erotic sketches from the 1960s.
For anybody interested in Picasso the exhibition is not to be missed however if you are a Philistine like me the building also holds a secret with far more interest.
The original Palacio was built on top of a Moorish building that was in turn above a Roman building that was superimposed on a section of the Phoenician walls and towers that were built to defend the town.
If you descend to this lower level you can see a rare example of Phoenician architecture, the walls and towers they built 2,500 years ago. Notice the Phoenician style is very similar (in places superior) to the Roman style of building that is seen in the fish factory. In fact so similar that you may think the Romans copied the method. The difference is in the mortar. The Romans discovered a particular mix of lime, sand and gravel that was very robust yet flexible enough to cope with wide temperature fluctuations and the consequent expansion and contraction of stone, rubble and mortar.
The Moorish style of building was different again. They frequently used flat, thin, fired bricks with a similar type of mortar to the Romans.
Entrance to the Palacio costs 6 Euros for adults and 3 Euros for Senior Citizens and youths between 10 and 16 years of age accompanied by an adult. Photography is forbidden.