The history
A Málaga landmark
since 1900
Origins
A bourgeois villa on the
Paseo de Sancha.
From the late 1870s, the Madrid engineer José María de Sancha transformed the eastern edge of Málaga. In 1879 he founded the company that acquired the El Platero estate between Avenida de Pries and the old Camino Nuevo, and developed it into a neighbourhood of detached garden villas. By 1887 residents had petitioned the city to formally name the avenue Paseo de Sancha.
Málaga's wealthiest families commissioned the most prominent architects of the period — Joaquín de Rucoba, Gerónimo Cuervo, Julio O'Brien, José María de Sancha himself and Fernando Guerrero Strachan — to build their second residences here. The house was a statement of taste and status, and Paseo de Sancha became one of the most desirable addresses in the city.
On the 23rd of November 1899, master builder Antonio Ruiz Fernández submitted plans for a residential villa on a plot of the former Hacienda de Quirós, commissioned by Miguel Gómez Cano. The licence was granted on the 24th of April 1900. Today that building is Paseo de Sancha 13.
Then
The villa, photographed
over a century ago.
A building of many lives
From private home to
school of tourism.
Built as a single family residence, the house was later used as a barracks for the Civil Guard, and afterwards as the León XIII school. In 1965 it was converted into Málaga's School of Tourism (Escuela de Turismo), which extended the original volume towards the hillside and enclosed the second floor terraces during the 1980s. A further extension was added on the first floor in the 1990s.
In 1985 the building changed hands but kept its educational vocation. After more than half a century as a place of learning, it eventually closed its doors and stood empty, awaiting a new chapter.
Heritage
Listed in Andalusia's
heritage register.
By Order of 21 November 2013, published in the Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, Paseo de Sancha 13 was inscribed in the General Register of Andalusian Historic Heritage (Catálogo General del Patrimonio Histórico Andaluz), together with a selection of buildings on Paseo de Reding, Avenida de Pries, Paseo de Sancha and Avenida Pintor Joaquín Sorolla.
The current restoration is carried out under the supervision of the Regional Ministry of Culture and Historic Heritage and the Málaga City Planning Authority. The original façade, structure and proportions are preserved, while the interiors are reimagined as 15 contemporary residences — a careful dialogue between heritage and modern Mediterranean living.
Timeline
Five lives, one
address.
Master builder Antonio Ruiz Fernández designs the villa for Miguel Gómez Cano on the former Hacienda de Quirós. Construction licence granted in April 1900.
Used as a single-family bourgeois residence on what is by then one of Málaga's most prestigious avenues.
The building serves as a barracks of the Civil Guard, and later as the León XIII school.
Becomes the Escuela de Turismo of Málaga. Extensions are added in the 1980s and 1990s to support its educational use.
Inscribed in the General Register of Andalusian Historic Heritage as a protected building of Paseo de Sancha.
Carefully restored and reimagined as Sancha 13, 15 contemporary residences, just steps from the Mediterranean.