Audio Guide

Welcome to La Concepción Historic Botanical Garden. You are at the main entrance, please stand in front of the map on the left hand side at the back, next to the pond with the aquatic plants. In this map, you can appreciate the vast size of the grounds. In the middle of the drawing you will see a darker green area, which marks the historic garden, around which the various buildings, places and special areas of the estate are arranged, which you can visit after this tour.

The estate dates back to the middle of the 18th century when La Concepción was part of a group of farms located to the north of the city, where lemons, grapes, cereals, olives and almonds were produced. A married couple, Jorge Loring and Amalia Heredia, bought the estate in 1855, and added other properties until they had 66 hectares. In 1911 the property was acquired by Rafael Echevarría, a native of Bilbao who was married to Amalia Echevarrieta. They were looking for a place in Malaga with a pleasant climate where they could spend long periods of time during the winter. In 1990 it was bought by Malaga City Council, which set aside an area of 23 hectares that included the subtropical garden — which was declared a Site of Cultural Interest — and the fruit orchards, an area of Mediterranean scrubland, and the various buildings that make up the Botanical Gardens.

Before we start our walk, we suggest that you take a map to help you follow the route, and it is also a good idea to read the rules of good manners. Remember that if you want to know the name of a plant you will find a “botanical label” near it, where you can see its scientific name, how it is most commonly known locally, the botanical family to which it belongs and its place of origin.

Let’s begin.

Now take the path just to the right of the panel with the map, known as the Paseo de Plátanos, which goes up towards the historic garden. You will see huge trees, the tops of which bend to the left, following the position of the sun to catch more sunlight. These are London plane trees, a species widely used to line roads and avenues. As it is highly allergenic, it has become less widely used in gardening over the last twenty years. The carriages used to ride up to the Mansion House along this road. Be sure to admire the ground cover plants that accompany us almost all of the way, which give the garden its special micro-climate.

Shortly after starting the route, on the left, you will find one of the greatest treasures of La Concepción: the Loringiano Museum.

Climb a small set of stairs to get a good view of the Doric-style temple and the exedra. The Loringiano Museum stands on a small hill. It was built in 1859 and designed by the German architect Wilhelm Strack, a protégé of the famous Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who in 1825 built a very similar mausoleum for Queen Marie-Louise of Prussia at Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. This small temple once housed a Roman mosaic that was discovered in Cártama and which depicts the exploits of Hercules (a reproduction can be seen inside the temple). Both inside and outside the small museum, a very important archaeological collection was assembled at the end of the 19th century, which attracted numerous historians and scholars. Its pieces included the Lex Flavia Malacitana, a bronze tablet bearing the Roman laws that governed Malaga in the year 80 AD, and a beautiful sculpture of the Muse Urania, both of which are in the National Archaeological Museum. Other famous pieces from the collection can be seen in the Museum of Malaga. Opposite to the museum is the exedra, an elongated, curved bench built many years after the museum. If you go behind the temple, you will find some panels with images of several important archaeological pieces and key figures in the history of La Concepción.

As we continue towards the Paseo de Plátanos, observe the small waterfalls and ponds on your left until you reach a large rotunda. We are about to enter the historic garden. We arrive at a bridge from which you will start to see the historic garden. It was declared a historic-artistic garden in 1943. The plants around us are reminiscent of an Amazonian jungle, with numerous species of varying shapes and sizes.

From the bridge, looking to the right, we can see two greenhouses from the end of the 19th century, where the plants that required the most care were cultivated. Many of them were the first of their species in Spain, and for this they received awards and prizes. Alongside them is the carnation pond with its arbour, where the family spent summer afternoons enjoying the coolness of the water. It is worth highlighting the bamboos that can be seen from here, the forest with black bamboo and thick common bamboo.

After the bridge, on the left, we can see some impressive roots rising from the ground. They belong to a ficus called the Moreton Bay fig tree, which is native to Australia. Its thick roots and wide crown give it a majestic appearance, very unlike its close relative the fig tree. They both belong to the Moraceae family.

As we climb the small slope we come to a round pond with a statue of Triton as a child. In its water is reflected the great Mansion House, built around 1861 and designed by the German architect August Orth. It is a neoclassical villa and, as it is perched on top of a hill, when it was built you could see almost all of the estate and the sea from it.

It was a summer residence and, according to articles in the press, numerous gatherings and parties were held here, and the Marquises were surrounded by important figures of the time, well-known aristocrats, politicians and artists.

Be sure to visit the old library and the inner courtyard of the house by entering on the left side, next to the Wisteria Arbour.

The Wisteria Arbour. This is one of the first constructions to be completed on the estate after it was purchased by Jorge Loring, around the same time as the Loringiano Museum in 1859. The iron used to make it is from the Heredia factory, owned by Manuel Agustín Heredia, the father of Jorge’s wife, Amalia. The Heredia blast furnaces were among the first in the country in 1826. The arbour is covered by one of the most characteristic plants of La Concepción, the wisteria (Wisteria sinensis). Its purplish-blue flowers hang in clusters between March and April. The family used to receive their guests in this area on summer evenings, and it was decorated with plants and Chinese lanterns. When designing gardens with a landscape style influence, it was common to build what was known as a vegetable tunnel, pergola, arbour or serre; however, the dimensions of this one, its intricate craftsmanship and beauty are impressive, and it is one of the most splendid iron works in Spain.

At the end of the arbour you will find some stairs leading off to the left. If you go down them and continue along the path to the right, you will come to a monkey puzzle tree. Stop before you pass the waterfall. You are in the centre of the historic garden.

Construction of the garden began in 1856, a few months after the estate was purchased. In 1857 they hired the French horticulturist Jacinto Chamoussent Codé, who must have begun work immediately, since as early as January 1860 there were already press reports of illustrious figures visiting La Concepción to view its gardens. The historic garden was grown over a period of 80 years, so it reflects various trends and styles. The first landscaping style can be seen in the Paseo de Plátanos, the area around the Loringiano Museum and the middle part of the garden. Later, landscaping was also completed around the Elizabethan-style Mansion House, with plants arranged in squares and adorned with flowers, surrounded by borders of herbaceous plants. In the 1920s, the regionalist style was introduced, the finest example of which is the viewpoint overlooking the city, the present-day emblem of this institution, which we will see later on. It was declared a historic-artistic garden in 1943. The garden is 5 hectares of greenery spread across a gentle slope, with winding paths, charming nooks and crannies, ponds, fountains, waterfalls, footbridges, greenhouses and statues.

Ever since the garden was created, its collection of palm trees has been growing steadily, featuring rare species such as Livistona saribus and Livistona decora and some extremely large specimens such as Roystonea regia and Brahea armata. The grounds are further embellished by countless tropical and subtropical plants, which are rare in Europe and grown outdoors. Look at the tall monkey puzzle trees. The one closest to the waterfall is the tallest plant in the entire province of Malaga, standing 48 metres high.

The centrepiece of the historic garden, it was built around 1878 by Jorge Loring. At that time, the garden was bordered on its southernmost slope by torrents, streams, footbridges, stone steps, ponds and other smaller waterfalls. Originally it was a rocky outcrop down which the water flowed in small cascades, but the growth of the surrounding plant life has transformed it into a waterfall.

Once you pass the little bridge you can see the work carried out during the Echevarría-Echevarrieta period. First we find a palm tree with blue-grey leaves, the Mexican blue palm (Brahea armata).

The main sculpture is the work of the sculptor Valentín Dueñas y Zabala (1888-1952) and was installed in 1915. This artist has several important pieces in the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. In the middle of the stream you can see how the water flows down between its stones, from a grotesque-style fountain that stands above it. It is best known for the Rafael Echevarría waterfall.

At the end of the stream, look up and you will see a wonder of nature: the stone pine.

A magnificent, stunning example of the stone pine, Pinus pinea, a tree native to the Mediterranean basin, which grows along the sandy coastal soils stretching from Portugal to Syria. As it has adapted to living in areas with mobile dunes and is partly covered by them, it has acquired its distinctive shape with a straight trunk and umbrella-shaped crown. It is the largest in the garden, with a circumference of three metres. It is considered a tree of great ornamental and landscape value due to its majestic size. It is quite common for birds such as eagles, vultures and storks to build their nests in the crowns of large specimens. The westernmost area of La Concepción was repopulated with this species, and today a large number of them remain, which can be seen between the Forest Route and the Viewpoint Route. As far as its uses go, it is a heavy wood with lots of knots, which makes it difficult to work with, although in the past it was used for railway sleepers and in construction. It is also used to stabilise slopes and coastal dunes. The essential oil obtained from its leaves has expectorant and antiseptic properties. But the most important commercial product obtained from the stone pine is its seeds, pine nuts, which are highly prized in Mediterranean cuisine.

Much like in the Paseo de Plátanos, we can see specimens of the Platanus orientalis acerifolia growing on both sides, interspersed with Canary Island date palms (Phoenix canariensis). This line-up was common in some French coastal towns during the 19th century. Our walk now takes us to the historic viewpoint. Images from the 1930s show soldiers from the Italian army training for combat during the Spanish Civil War, allies of the national army.

A group of plants that live in conditions with extreme water shortages. They come in a wide range of genera and families and many different shapes and sizes and adapt to the environment in a number of ways. In order to minimise transpiration to reduce moisture loss to a minimum, their leaves have been shed or become spines, and even photosynthesis differs somewhat from that of other plants. Their physiological processes have been altered, with their stomata closing for most of the day and opening at night, which is when they capture CO2. They are spread across the arid and semi-arid subtropical areas of the world. Succulents are found on all 5 continents, but cacti are an almost exclusively American family.

The historic viewpoint was built by the Echevarría-Echevarrieta family around 1920. In the regionalist style, it is a belvedere that is supported by eight columns, with a dome covered with green and white glazed tiles, it is topped by a three-sphere finial and has a star-patterned floor. La Concepción’s pavilion is reflected in the calm waters of a pond that lies behind it. From here you can see the city, the port and Gibralfaro Castle ahead; to the east you can see the Nadales Estate, formerly the San José Estate; to the west the Limonero Dam and to the north the Montes de Malaga Nature Reserve. An image of this pavilion is the garden’s emblem.

Water is the centrepiece of this space, flowing in streams, ponds and small waterfalls. It is the part of the garden favoured by artists for holding outdoor exhibitions and the perfect place to relax outside in the fresh air on one of the benches, as it is usually 2 or 3 degrees cooler than outside the historic garden. The plants grow in shady habitats. They include monsteras, dwarf monsteras and various types of ferns, which give it a lush, tropical appearance, and palms that prefer to grow under large trees, such as species from the Rhapis or Chamaedorea genera. One of the most peculiar is the Chambeyronia macrocarpa, native to the forests of New Caledonia, as its new leaves are a striking reddish colour. This is not a historical area, it was built in 1994 and is named after the first director of La Concepción.

An old building from the beginning of the 20th century where the tools were kept for cultivating and acclimatising newly-introduced species. Here you can see a charming exhibition showing everyday scenes from the lives of the Marquises of Casa Loring in the garden, created by the Malaga artist Alberto Martín. They are based on photographs of the period and entitled “The history of La Concepción told by Barbie”.

There are three varieties of lotuses, one with large pink flowers that are 30 cm in diameter and on long stalks; another of the rosea variety, which has smaller, fuchsia-coloured flowers; and the white ‘Xiangshan Lian’ cultivar. In the largest water reservoir you can see the jewel of the collection, Victoria cruziana, propagated in the research greenhouses and grown to a size suitable for display. From June to October they are all in full bloom.

250 million years ago the planet was warmer and wetter than it is today. In the Triassic period, dinosaurs lived in a world dominated by giant horsetails and ferns that formed large forests. The first plants to have seeds were called gymnosperms, whose seeds are embedded in pine cones. They included cycads, ginkgos and conifers. This area features a collection of those ancient species: a specimen of Ginkgo biloba, Cycas, Encephalartos, Zamia, Dioon and Macrozamia.

We will end the walk by admiring the plants that live inside the iron pavilion. It is a small hothouse where plants with special humidity, temperature and water quality requirements can grow together. It contains two very special collections, the carnivorous plants and the myrmecophytes, as well as a variety of orchids. Carnivorous plants live in humid environments, such as peat bogs and swampy areas, which are poor in nutrients, so they feed by adapting their leaves to capture prey. Myrmecophytes are plants that have established a mutualistic relationship with ants. The ants protect them from herbivores that try to feed on them and the plant feeds on the waste generated by the ants; in turn, the plant serves as a shelter and provides them with food.

The garden is currently a member of the Ibero-Macaronesian Association of Botanic Gardens (AIMJB) and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). Through them, seeds are exchanged with other scientific institutions around the world. Research and experimentation is one of the missions of a botanical garden. Here work is being carried out on acclimatising species, studying the history of gardens in 19th century Malaga and addressing issues related to climate change. Among other activities, the catalogue of species and botanical labels are kept up to date. Since it was opened to the public, La Concepción has attached great importance to education: promoting awareness of the natural world and protecting the environment are key pillars of our work. As sustainability is so important nowadays, a closed-loop water circulation system has been implemented and solar panels have been installed to produce clean energy.

Our tour has come to an end. We hope that you have enjoyed it and that you will go on to visit the different areas, exhibitions and collections that you have yet to see.