Benalmadma Pueblo is one of the best towns to take part in a Corpus Christi festival on the Costa del Sol. Several of the streets in and around Plaza de España are decorated with a carpet of coloured petals and greenery ahead of a mid-day church procession.
The Benalmádena stupa was designed to be the largest Buddhist stupa in the western world. The story behind the stupa goes back to 1990 when a Buddhist master came to Spain to give talks to the faithful in Vélez-Málaga. In Vélez, there is a Buddhist meditation centre.
Felipe Orlando-García Murciano, the prestigious Anthropologist and artist, who died in April 2001 at the age of 90, inherited a collection of pre-Columbian relics from his grandfather.
The Plaza de España is the central point of the old village and it is also the home of the 'Niña de Benalmadena (the little girl of Benalmádena). The sculpture of a little girl holding out a large seashell was sculptured by the local artiste Jaime Pimentel.
Situated on the outskirts of the village, next to the stunning Buddhist stupa, the butterfly park is housed in a spectacular Thai temple with exotic landscaped gardens. The park boasts more than 1,500 exotic species of butterflies that fly freely among tropical plants and water features.
The Santo Domingo de Guzman Church was built in the 17th century and it is the oldest church in Benalmádena. Thought to have been built on the foundations of a previous temple - close to where the old defensive wall was located - the church is situated in Plaza Santo Domingo, the original nucleus of the town. The small square also houses a monument to Santo Domingo de Guzman. Canonised in the early 13th century, Saint Dominik was the founder of the Order of Friars Preachers, one of the four great mendicant orders of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Castillo de Colomares is a monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus and the discovery of the New World.Some of the best views of this fairy-tale like castle, which rises from the pine forests that separates the pueblo from the coast, can be seen from the 17th century St Domingo de Guzman Church.
Perched 280 meters above sea level in the mountains between the village of Mijas and the Mediterranean coastline, Benalmádena Pueblo is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Malaga. The town has a large expat population, although it has managed to retain the ambience of a sleepy white Andalusian village.
