History
Archaeology offers us data about the continued human presence in the municipality of Rincon de la Victoria, throughout the different cultures and societies, as befits a territory that brings together fresh water, protection in caves and hills, fertile land, marine resources and communication routes between east and west, and inland.
In the caves of Cueva de la Victoria y Cueva del Tesoro there is clear evidence of the existence of human groups from the Middle Paleolithic (Mousterian) and Upper Paleolithic (Solutrean), and during Recent Prehistory (Neolithic and Chalcolithic).
The oldest settlement in the municipality is a Phoenician settlement from the 7th century BC situated on the southern slopes of La Loma de Torre de Benagalbon, which lasted until the Roman period, moving later to the plain, where the remains of a Roman maritime villa from the 3rd century are preserved and which will soon be included on the Villa Antiopa Museum.
The largest number of human settlement remains are concentrated at the crossroads of the coastal and inland communication routes, which were controlled by the Castillon hill, which still has the walled enclosure of the castle from the Muslim period on its summit. Pre-Roman ceramic remains have been identified as well in its interior.
At the foot of the hill and towards the beach, from the 9th to the 15th centuries, the medieval farmstead of Bezmiliana spread out, whose name we know from the writings of Muslim authors, and of which we have evidence thanks to the numerous archaeological excavations that have been carried out.
After the passage of the army of the Catholic Monarchs from Vélez-Málaga to Málaga in May of 1487, an uninhabited Bezmiliana was incorporated into the Crown of Castile and repopulated with Old Christians.
In the campaign to reinforce the defensive system, in the face of the increase in coastal piracy, Fernando de Uncibay converted the main mosque into a fortification, of which the cistern, the base of the minaret and the base of the Christian bastion have been preserved.
In 1511 the records indicate the depopulation of Bezmiliana. The population moved inland and the name is preserved in the ventas of Mixmiliana, located next to the little-travelled but unsafe Camino de Vélez, which was subject to piracy, first Islamic and later English.
Benagalbón was possibly founded by a Berber tribe during the North African invasions from the 11th century onwards, whose anthroponym gives its name to the locality and to the municipality created in the 19th century.
Carlos III built a line of fortifications, repaired and improved the route of the Realenga del Camino Viejo de Vélez.
It was Felipe II who ordered in 1571 the construction of two watchtowers on the coast of the municipality; as a curiosity, Torre de Benagalbon is named after the construction of this fortification.
The security revitalized the commercial traffic along the coastal road, favouring the settlement of Levantine fishermen between the rocky outcrop of El Cantal and the promontory of Las Pedrizas. In the corner under the ownership of the Mínimos friars who looked after the Sanctuary of La Victoria in Malaga, converted into a Military Hospital in the 19th century, they moved to the former Bezmiliana. There they had a house and vineyards since the end of the 15th century, to construct a building linked to them; this may well be the origin of the name Rincon de la Victoria, as it is the invocation associated with this order.
Another of the villages, Cala del Moral, owes its name to the presence of numerous mulberry trees (“Moral” in Spanish) during the Andalusian period, linked to the production of silk.
Throughout the 19th century there was a proliferation of orchards and a boom in traffic to supply Malaga with vegetables and fish, and to provide an outlet for the traditional crops of figs and raisins from the interior.
The arrival of the railway in 1908 made the coastal area even more dynamic, something that favoured, among other things, the conditions that led, in 1950, to the change of name of the municipality and its capital from Benagalbon to Rincon de la Victoria.
