Ruta de Murales Artisticos
Ruta de Murales Artisticos
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Redkitewatcher64
Andover, UK2,007 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Feb 2022
We drove from our villa 1.5hrs away to do this walk and see the murals. Unfortunately the tourist office was closed when we arrived so could not pick up a copy of the route map. Luckily a waiter at a local restaurant tracked one down for us, however the map is very poor. Not good quality, poorly printed and very small print so difficult to read road names etc. We didn't have time to see all of the murals so planned a route that meant we could see as many murals as we could in the time we had . The murals are on various buildings around the town, some are very obvious some a little harder to find. There is also a big difference in quality both in artistic ability and paint quality , some are a little faded . It was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours, a bit of a treasure hunt and some amazing pictures to view. There are lovely areas of the town with floral displays and other artwork.Our favourite was the fisherman and fish over 4 buildings and the girl watering the plants
Written March 5, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Turista-Inglesa
Estepona, Spain45,042 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2015 • Friends
.
New walk to see the Giant Murals, 19 of them. You might like to print this out to take on your walk

A walk to do now that the cooler weather is here . . . so if you are reading this in June, July or August, this may not be the best way to spend a morning in the heat, it's an evening walk only in summer.

But this walk does give you a sight of most although not all of the town's murals, and certainly the most spectacular ones. 19 of them, although since some are doubles or are on 4, 5 or 6 blocks, it could be said to be a lot more!

At a leisurely stroll this walk takes just over an hour, it was carefully timed. But l didn't stop to gaze and take photos. Nor to sit and rest or have a beer and tapas! l would think that an hour and a half, or even an hour and three quarters, would be more likely, longer if you eat en route. Plenty of opportunity to break this up by sitting down – the text indicates where there are benches, the bars you will see for yourselves.

The walk is mostly flat although there are a couple of 50 yard stretches of uphill. You can avoid steps, so it is suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs, although there are kerbs to go up and down.

A very interesting walk rather than a picturesque one; where ordinary folk live; some of the barriadas – districts – are quite modest, especially towards the end of the walk. The route also takes you past two pretty parks if you wish to stop and look, and the Orchid House. If you wish to visit the Orchid House, check out the opening hours on the Estepona Turismo website - I cannot give the link as TripAdvisor doesn't like links in their reviews.

There are plenty of bars and restaurants en route, and you end up at the Calle Caridad/Calle Real/Plazoleta Ortiz hub that is packed with eating places.

BEGIN: You start at the fountain with horses near the bar/restaurant Central Beach on the seafront Walk up the RH side of the dual carriageway main road. When opposite the Carrefour supermarket look right to see the mural painted on 4 sides of a building that is part of a Primary School.

* * 1st mural “Pruning the Bougainvillea” – the first of the trompe-l'oeil effect murals. No, there isn't really a gardener up a ladder!

You'll see a park on the right – the Parque de la Constitución - take the road to the left of the park (there are benches inside if you need a rest already) and then in 50 yards turn left into a footpath lined with palm trees between two blocks of flats. More benches along here. At the end turn right and walk for 20 yards and then you have two murals. On the left over the road is:

* * 2nd mural “Clear weather” It's a mural and a half really, as it is on two separate walls of the apartment block.

Cross over the road by this mural and look over the roundabout:

* * 3rd mural “Irene's Orchard” with the ripe lemons being picked.

Take the road on left by the side of the building where the 2nd mural is painted. Called Calle Pilar de Farinós. You walk alongside on the left some modest social housing and on the right a piece of wasteland; turn right at the end of this wasteland, walk on the left hand pavement and then 200 yards along on the right, above a nice little bar, is

* * 4th mural “Musical Airs”, celebrating 75 years of the municipal band.

Keep straight on, then at the end of the road turn right, opposite a sports ground, walk 200 yards and there on the right just round the corner is

* * 5th mural “Souls of the Sea”

Turn right here into a small dual carriageway with pine trees down the centre, walking past the mural. You come to a little roundabout with an olive tree in the middle (there's a bench just before you get there, and a playground on the right). Go straight across, following the road with the pine trees, and cross over that road and continue in the same direction.

When you get to the park with a school by it, turn left. Just as you turn you will see

* * 6th mural “Antonia Guerrera” This is not painted but in relief, and is a monument to a local Señora who left money for educating young women of Estepona. Nowadays the scholarships are open to both sexes.

Turn left in front of this mural, and continue on this street, which immediately bends to the right. As you walk along you will see above you on the left the Bar Peña Flamenca – Estepona's flamenco club. It has a nice big terrace for stopping for a drink or something to eat, and there are also some public benches in the playground nearby.

Continue on, and as you come to a crossroad you see painted on a building to your left

* * 7th mural “San Isidro” He is the ploughman saint, protector of the farmers, and is one of the two Patron Saints of Estepona, the other being Our Lady of Carmel – Nuestra Señora del Carmen, the fishermen's protectress.

At the crossroad you turn left and then bear left up a slight hill towards the trees in the park. At the top of this road the next mural is on your left, but the best way to see it is to turn right, immediately take the zebra crossing over the main road, and then turn left for 20 yards up to the corner. Here you get a splendid view of

* * 8th mural “Watering the Garden”, a lovely trompe-l'oeil effect mural where the “shadows” make it seem very real as the little girl waters the real tree on the pavement.

Now go back along this road the way you came, walking alongside the railings of the Parque del Calvario. Pretty soon you'll see ahead:

* * 9th mural “Keep on Trucking” Goodness knows where the title came from! It's a cartoon character.

Keep on walking along this side of the road, past an open space with ceramic mosaics and benches, past the CajaMar bank, and in another 20 metres you'll get a clear view of the next mural, which is just a little bit further on from the Keep on Trucking

* * 10th mural “Venus” Another mural where there is no immediate reason for the title!

Now comes the Big One. The largest one in Europe, in fact.

Retrace your steps, past the CajaMar, past the ceramic mosaics and benches back to the zebra just the other side of the roundabout. Cross over and walk round for 50 yards (you cross a little side street) until you are on the big arrow saying “Vista Mural” to get the best possible view of:

* * 11th mural “A Day of Fishing” He is hooking a gigantic fish – is it a tuna or a mackerel? The mural spreads across six blocks. Do we count it as one mural or six?

Continue down this road, the Calle Terraza, Estepona's major shopping street at the other end, and shortly on the right are two blocks painted with

* * 12th mural “Loving Mother”

* * 13th mural “The Gaze of a Child”

You now come, on the left, to the gardens surrounding the Orchid House.

Stand and admire those gardens. Let your gaze roam over all the trees and flowers, especially those near the apartment blocks on the right of the gardens. Then look again. Some of these trees and flowering climbers aren't real, they are another set of trompe-l'oeil murals on four or five buildings.

* * 14th mural “Reflections of the Gardens” These are breath-takingly beautiful!

Walk in front of the decorated blocks to admire them, and then turn between two bars after the first block. At the crossroad ahead go straight across – it's the Calle Zurbarán – and straight away turn round to see on a building behind you:

* * 15th mural “4M”, a painting said to be based on Scarlett Johansson. Hmn, not so sure about that!

Now walk along the Calle Zurbarán; if you turn around after 20 yards you get another good view of Scarlett. Keep walking past the Old Folks' Day Centre on the left – the building with the flagpoles, until you come to a crossroad with a big white block in front of you.

On the left is the Plaza del Ajedrez – Chess Square. The Estepona Chess School is based here, and there are usually a few players at the open-air chessboards. Turn second left to walk on the RH side of the triangle of the chess school, slightly uphill for a moment. When you are almost at the T junction at the top cross over the road you are on and look back at:

* * 16th mural “Estepona Vermillion”

Turn right now and start walking slightly uphill (you can take the steps or go round on the pavement) there are benches alongside the pavement if the going gets tough for you! When you come to the Farmacia, turn right and go downhill for another spectacular mural:

* * 17th mural “A Flower of the Future” You will see that on a small roundabout just before the mural is a metal sculpture that echoes the design of the painting. The best spot for taking a photo of the two of them is in the middle of the road – take care!

Walk now down the road where the mural is, and turn first left into the Calle Azorin which has a zig-zag up the slope. At the top turn right, and then first left into the Calle Ronda, ignoring the tempting sight ahead of the pretty flowerpots in the continuation of the Calle Portada. Here we are in a very modest part of the town, blocks with no balconies built in the 50's or 60's to re-house fishing families. Go past two little streets and turn right into the open space with benches (and probably washing left out to dry – nowhere else to put it). In front of you are the final murals:

* * 18th mural “Without Memory there is no History - 1”

* * 19th mural “Without Memory there is no History – 2”

These remind the residents of their history, and some of the faces are said to be actual people.

To end our walk, go between the two murals, then turn left towards the tree-shaded square in the distance. There is a bar here, or you can just turn right down the steps (if you go straight ahead instead and turn left there is a wheelchair slope down) to be almost immediately in the Calle Caridad/Calle Real/Plazoleta Ortiz hub that is packed with eating places and watering holes, where you are sure to have a lot of choice.

Have fun!
Written September 17, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Turista-Inglesa
Estepona, Spain45,042 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2014 • Family
.

Street Art.

Or perhaps Building Art?

18 months ago Estepona Town Council started commissioning gigantic works of art. Enormous. When you first see one of them, you will hardly believe your eyes!

They were painted on the blank sides of generally rather ugly buildings, and have become a real talking point. The crowds gather to watch them being painted; amazingly most of them take just two or three weeks, with the artist up on scaffolding wielding his - or her - big paintbrush. On one of the paintings the artist has painted an actual local resident, an elderly gentleman who lives in the block. You can see how good the picture is by my photo.

There are now, January 2014, 16 of them around the town. They are not in the old centre, the Centro Histórico, because they are on the sides of high-rise blocks, and the old town doesn't have any of those.

They are scattered around, in different "Barrios" - local areas - of the town. You can find them in 'Mar y Sierra', 'Tres Banderas', 'Los Televisores', 'San Isidro Labrador', 'Primavera', 'El Cid', 'Fuerzas Armadas' , 'Los Remedios' and 'Isabel Simon'.

The Tourist Office in the Plaza de las Flores has a map with a lot - but not all - of them marked on; you can ask them to mark the others for you.

Mural-spotting around the town is not something to do on a hot afternoon in July or August - you'll faint from the heat. But at other times of the day - early morning - or other times of the year, it's a great way to walk around and get to know the town.

The latest - number 16 - was officially unveiled just a few days ago (January 2014), and is said to be the largest art work in all Spain, possibly in all Europe, covering over 1,000 square meters. And it took only 3 weeks. I couldn't have managed a coat of whitewash over that surface in that time, yet alone a work of art.

It is painted on six adjoining blocks of flats and, like many of the others, has a trompe-l'oeil effect. If you stand in the right position, you can see the fisherman casting his line then pulling out the fish.

The 17th is already planned, in the 'Picasso-Blas Infante' barrio, and this time the artists are . . . prisoners from the Penitentiary at Alhaurín de la Torre.

Estepona has so much going for it now, with its beautiful Centro Histórico, its lovely squares, its new museums, its great restaurants, its marvellous beaches, its wonderful weather and its friendly people. And now this!

Why would anyone ever want to go - or live - anywhere else?

:-)

* * * STOP PRESS * * *

The Town Council has also just started another Route - the Ruta de la Poesía - the Poetry Route. And this IS in the Centro Histórico. Keep an eye out for large, attractive, ceramic wall plaques with an extract from a poem on them.

.
Written January 18, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Turista-Inglesa
Estepona, Spain45,042 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2014 • Solo
.

Every time you open the newspaper they seem to be inaugurating a new mural!

And I have been privileged to see an artist at work on one of them.

It was announced that there was a new one about to be inaugurated, so two days before the official date i went walking to look at it. It was the one with the girl "watering" a real live tree in the street. It's on the Avenida de Andalucia, near the Parque del Calvario.

I was astonished to see that the artist was still at work, painting the girl's legs from the knee down. With a broad brush he deftly gave shape to her legs and shoes, then set about putting in the "shadow".

Fascinating!

And well worth a visit. By night the shadow is particularly effective, but it's also very interesting by day - go and see it twice!

The Tourist Office has produced a very helpful NEW map - much better than the old one, with street names instead of just addresses, so it's easier to find them. And of course, with the latest ones marked!

But not the very very latest, up by the IES Monterroso school, which celebrates the 75th Anniversary of the Parish Church Choir and Band.
Written December 19, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Phil J
Estepona, Spain15 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Have seen 18 of these so far, and they are very impressive, managed to see most in an hours walk, and drove to a couple of the outlying ones, revisited at night to see them lit up, which emphasizes some, but others are better in daylight. The map from the tourist information is a little small and not all murals are on it. The stand out is the 'Pescador' for its size, but there is a wide variety of styles. Great idea!
Written October 28, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Turista-Inglesa
Estepona, Spain45,042 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sep 2014 • Family
.

There are well over 20 now. Get the map from the Tourist Office, and ask them to mark the new ones on.

A couple have been produced by prisoners in the Jail in Alhaurin. These are "sculpture murals". Instead of being painted directly on the walls, the prison workshop made shapes in metal which were then hoisted up on to the walls with the aid of cranes.

Spectacular!

You must get to see as many as you can. I have added photos of some of the newer ones.

You will enjoy seeing these!

.
Written September 3, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Luis Z
Kyle, TX4 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2017
The walking route to see these murals exposes you to the town and people of Estepona, which we found refreshing and well worthwhile. The murals are alternately interesting, thought-provoking, even funny. Estepona has quite a bit of public art along the way. Say hello to someone on the street and express your interest in the town; you'll find a warm welcome and tips to even more travel treasures.
Written February 17, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Andy_in_Estepona
Estepona, Spain334 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jul 2014 • Family
Estepona should be very proud of their imagination to think of this and then the execution of this idea. The murals are an extra facet in Estepona's growing armory of tourist attractions and I would recommend a stroll around the old town to take these in to any visitor to Estepona.

Just charming!
Written July 17, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Turista-Inglesa
Estepona, Spain45,042 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2016 • Friends
.

You come back to the UK for a couple of weeks, and while you're away, the mural-painter has been at work again!

The very latest ones have been painted on all the blocks of flats - a dozen or more - surrounding the lovely Orchid House.

There are some other new ones too - one of Don Quixote on a school, and a very colourful painting of San Isidro the ploughman patron saint of Estepona.

But it's the wonderful new trompe-l'oeil paintings around the Orchid House which are the most stunning of all.

There are palm trees - which are the real ones, which are the painted ones with painted shadows? There is bougainvillea blooming bright pink over a building - but it seems to grow round the corner . . . There are gigantic flower pots, reflecting those in the surrounding streets.

The whole thing is just exquisite. Exquisite.

You MUST go and see them - and see my other review for the walk which takes in large numbers of the murals. I saw a group of people the other day, obediently trotting round the town with a print-out in their hand, following the directions to the next amazing sight. :-)

They were enjoying themselves, and you will too. That's a promise!

.
Written April 1, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

purserMonaco
Monaco130 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
May 2015 • Friends
a simple map is available from the tourist offices in estepona. It is not a hard walk even the small hills are easy to do. You will be amazed at how good they are. The fisherman and the girl watering the tree are my fav's.
Written May 22, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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