Roman Malaga

Updated: April 2026

Most visitors to Malaga stroll past two thousand years of Roman history without realising it. The Roman Theatre sits right at the foot of the Alcazaba on one of the busiest streets in the city, yet plenty of people glance at it from the pavement and keep walking. If you love a bit of heritage, that’s a mistake.

Malaga was a significant Roman city. Known as Malaca, it sat on one of the Mediterranean’s most important trading routes and became wealthy producing garum – a fermented fish sauce so prized in Rome that it rivalled the value of fine wine. The stone vats where it was made are still here, buried beneath a museum basement, a university courtyard, and a glass pyramid on Calle Alcazabilla. You can stand next to them.

What makes Roman Malaga interesting is not just that the remains exist, but where they’ve ended up – embedded in the fabric of a working modern city, accessible without a coach trip or a ticket queue. The theatre still hosts performances in summer. The vast Roman residential complex discovered beneath the Carmen Thyssen Museum only opened to visitors in early 2026. Excavations are still ongoing in parts of the old quarter. This is live archaeology, not a museum diorama.

This guide covers the main Roman sites in the city, what to look for at each one, and how to put together a half-morning that connects them.

Garum – Malaga’s liquid gold

Before olive oil, before wine, the condiment that defined Roman cooking was garum, a pungent, intensely flavoured sauce made by fermenting fish bones, blood and innards in large stone vats under the Mediterranean sun. It sounds unappetising. It tasted extraordinary, apparently, and the Romans couldn’t get enough of it.

Malaga was one of the main production centres in the western Roman world. The city had everything the industry needed: an abundant supply of Atlantic bluefin tuna moving through the Strait of Gibraltar each spring, a reliable climate for fermentation, and direct sea routes to Rome. Garum from the Malaga region was exported across the empire and commanded prices that made its producers seriously wealthy.

The stone vats where it was made are still here. You can see them at four places in the city — the Roman Theatre, the new villa beneath the Carmen Thyssen Museum, the Picasso Museum basement, and the central patio of Malaga University headquarters. As a result, garum is the thread that connects almost every Roman site in this guide. Look down into the glass pyramid on Calle Alcazabilla as you approach the theatre. That’s where it starts.

Roman Theatre in Malaga

The biggest evidence of the Roman’s stay in Malaga comes in the Roman Theatre to the west of the Alcazaba Fortress. This is one of the 7 preserved Roman theatres in Andalucia. The Malaga version was built in the first century AD and used as the main entertainment venue in the city for around 200 years. It then fell into disuse until the Arabs used it as a quarry for building the adjacent Fortress. The Theatre then slowly filled in and disappeared from sight.

It wasn’t until 1951 that the Roman Theatre reemerged and then only by chance. Workers digging a garden for the cultural centre built on the site came across remains and these were later identified as part of the Roman Theatre. It then took several decades for excavation work to be completed and the Theatre restored to almost its former glory.

Today, you can wander round the Theatre and see the three clearly defined areas: the stage (performances are sometimes held here in the summer); the orchestra section where the local authorities sat on white marble seats; and the seats themselves. In usual Roman style, the 13 rows of seats form a perfect semi-circle around the stage.

You can see most of the Theatre from Calle Alcazabilla, although you get a much better idea of perspective if you enter the theatre itself and climb to the top row of seats.

Open Tues-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 10am to 4pm. Free entry. Allow between 30-60 minutes for your visit.

Roman villa in Malaga

In early 2026, new Roman remains opened in the city, with the Roman residential and commercial complex beneath the Carmen Thyssen Museum. This vast complex from the 1st century AD includes garum vats, a private house, streets and shops.

Read more about these Roman ruins

A guided tour or audio guide gives you a fascinating insight into the workings of these once bustling part of the city. Highlights include the Nymphaeum of the Fish fountain, the well-preserved garum vats, the grinding stone in the kitchen and the clearly-marked streets and walls.

Open Tuesday to Sunday 10am to 8pm, as part of the museum visit. Tickets to the museum and ruins cost €15 (€10 for residents in Malaga province). Visits to the ruins are hourly.

We recommend online booking via the museum website because only 20 people are allowed to visit every hour.

Garum Factories in Roman Malaga

The garum fish sauce fit for emperors became such as delicacy in Rome that anyone who made it and/or traded it became rich. And garum from Spain was particularly highly sought-after so it’s not surprise that numerous garum factories were set up in Malaga. Today, you can see the large stone vats where the sauce was prepared at:

• Roman Theatre – look down into the glass pyramid on Calle Alcazabilla. This section of the Theatre is occasionally open.
• Malaga University headquarters – the central patio has some well-preserved examples of garum vats.
• Picasso Museum – the basement contains important archaelogical remains from several eras including part of a Roman factory where the prized garum was made.

 Other Signs of Roman Malaga

You can see some of the finds excavated during the uncovering of the Roman Theatre at several places in the city. For example:

MuCAC, the city museum has some sculptures and a marble torso of the Emperor Augustus.

The Museum of Malaga has numerous Roman statues and sculptures. You can also see a copy of the Lex Flavia Malacitana, a document declaring Malaga full rights as a city under the Roman Empire in 74AD. The original is in the National Museum of Archaeology in Madrid

The Alcazaba Fortress also has some Roman artefacts on display.

For a glimpse of the Roman walls, go down into the basement at Malaga University headquarters to admire the large section of wall built by Phoenicians, Romans and the Moors.

Read more about historic walls in Malaga.

A map and itinerary of Roman Malaga

Fancy doing Roman Malaga in a morning? The route below takes in the best of them without backtracking. Allow 2 to 3 hours.

Start at the Roman Theatre on Calle Alcazabilla. Arrive when it opens (10am Tuesday to Sunday) to get the best of the morning light on the stone and beat any school groups. Check out the visitor’s centre, with useful background information and then climb to the top row of seats. Allow 45 to 60 minutes for your visit. When you leave, look down into the glass pyramid in Calle Alcazabilla for your first garum vats.

From the Theatre, walk up into the Alcazaba if you haven’t already visited. The entrance is directly above and the Roman marble columns in the Puerta de las Columnas are worth pausing at. If you’re saving the Alcazaba for another day, continue along Calle Alcazabilla towards the city centre.

A five-minute walk brings you to the Carmen Thyssen Museum on Calle Compañía and the new Roman villa beneath it. This is the most significant Roman site to open in Malaga in decades and visits are limited to 20 people per hour, so book online in advance before you plan the rest of your morning. Allow an hour. The garum vats here are among the best preserved in the city.

From the Carmen Thyssen, it’s a short walk to the Picasso Museum on Plaza de la Merced. The Roman remains are in the basement (garum vats and walls) and are included in the museum ticket.

Finally, if you have time and curiosity to spare, head to Malaga University headquarters on Avda de Cervantes, a few minutes on foot from the Picasso Museum. The central patio has garum vats visible from ground level, and the basement contains a substantial section of Phoenician, Roman and Moorish wall. Access is generally possible during opening hours, Monday to Friday 10am to 2pm and 5 to 9pm, Saturday 10am to 2pm. Free entry.

Finish with coffee. You’ve just walked through 2,000 years of history in under three hours.

 Tips for visiting Roman Malaga

• Visit the Roman Theatre in the late afternoon when the setting sun turns the stone a golden yellow.
• Take time out from the hustle and bustle of Malaga, and sit on one of the seats at the Roman Theatre and watch the world go by.
• View the Roman Theatre from above from the Alcazaba Walkway, almost a bird’s eye view.
• Try a tuna dish. The original recipe for garum has never been discovered but there are several venues in Malaga that offer excellent dishes with tuna.

The Roman Theatre rates as one of the best historical sights in Malaga, but the city also has lots and lots of other things to see. Check out our list.