Málaga for Art Lovers: The Best Museums and Galleries

For years, Málaga was the airport you flew into on the way to the beach. Not any more. Picasso's home town now has more than thirty museums, a revived port and a thriving food scene – enough for a full city break in its own right. These are the highlights for anyone who loves art.

1. Museo Picasso Málaga

Housed in the Buenavista Palace in the old town, the museum shows works from every stage of Picasso's long career – paintings, drawings, sculpture and ceramics – many donated by his family. Temporary exhibitions are often excellent. Book a timed ticket online in busy months.

2. Picasso's birthplace (Casa Natal)

Picasso was born in 1881 in a house on Plaza de la Merced, a few minutes' walk from the museum. Today it's a museum about his early life and family, with personal objects, sketches and a reconstruction of the family home. Sit in the square afterwards next to his bronze statue on a bench.

3. Museo Carmen Thyssen

In a 16th-century palace with a cool central patio, this museum focuses on 19th-century Spanish painting, especially Andalusian scenes, landscapes and everyday life. It's a great introduction to the region's art before Picasso.

4. Centre Pompidou Málaga

The brightly coloured glass cube on the port is the first branch of the Paris museum outside France. Below it, galleries show modern and contemporary art from the Pompidou's collection, along with temporary exhibitions and family workshops.

5. Museo de Málaga

The city's largest museum fills the neoclassical Palacio de la Aduana (the old customs house) near the port. It combines a fine arts collection with archaeology, from Phoenician and Roman finds to 19th-century painting.

6. CAC Málaga and the Soho district

The Contemporary Art Centre, in a former market building by the river, hosts free exhibitions of international contemporary art. Around it, the Soho district is covered in large murals by street artists from around the world – walk the streets between the river and the port to see them.

7. Art in the streets of the old town

Málaga's history is part of the attraction too. The Roman Theatre sits right at the foot of the Alcazaba, the Moorish fortress, and the unfinished cathedral – nicknamed "La Manquita", the one-armed lady, for its missing second tower – rises above the old town.

Make a weekend of it

Combine museums with a walk along the redeveloped port (Muelle Uno), tapas in the old town and a swim at Malagueta beach. Málaga Airport is close to the city and linked by suburban train, and high-speed trains run to Córdoba, Seville and Madrid.