Monte Paraiso - History


	CALAHONDA HISTORY

By Juan Orbaneja Desvall

The land of Calahonda formed by the merging of two real estates, with an area of 280 hectares was owned by the brothers Gerardo, Enrique and Elvira Van Dulken. The main access to the fort house Cortijo, nowadays EI Campanario, was a track which started it's route from the N340 opposite "Algaida" going up through the centre of Calahonda, now Calle Conde de Jordana. The fort house of the land dated from the same period as the watchtowers along the coast, was painted with two colours, white colour on the lower part and ochre colour on the upper part, this to camouflage the fort and be able to watch the coast without being seen. During the period of the Moorish attacks the fort house meant shelter and was therefore provided with a big fireplace to prepare meals and to give warmth. Other characteristics were the spaces and openings to shoot through for defending against the attacks of the Moors. The fort house is and was provided with thick walls, giving more security to the same and isolating it from the cold and heat.

In 1963 the Orbaneja family, Jose and Fernando and Carmen Desvalls, experts in the area of Lands Urbanising as they developed one in the province of Tarragona, came down to the Coast looking for land to urbanise. This was during the boom years at the time of big developments on this area. Among the lands they saw, was the one of Calahonda which they liked because of it's characteristics and appearance, covered with pine trees on the lower part and with a peak height of 300 metres giving beautiful sea views. They contacted the owners, the Van Dulken family, coming to an agreement with them, which basically consisted in the purchase by the Orbaneja family of part of the land, to subsequently urbanise the same together with the rest of the land to be provided by the Van Dulken brothers. The Orbaneja brothers bought from General Egea (the owner of the fort house situated on the beach) about 120.000 metres from which approximate 40.000 metres belong to the area of Cabo Pino. The association in charge of the planning was called 'Calahonda Urbanisations'.

The original planning of Calahonda was made by the architects Mr. Gabriel Allende and Mr. Garcia de Castro. The initial idea, just like in any urbanisation during this period, was the division of the lands into plots of 5000 M² and 8000 M², construction of an artificial lake, polo courts and the construction of a social club which was to be located in EI Campanario. From 1964 until mid 1966, General Director of the Urbanisation was Mr. Fernando Orbaneja, who worried about the water supply to the Urbanisation. He took care of the search and perforation of wells in the area of Calahonda and although he found several, they were not sufficient to supply enough water to an Urbanisation with these characteristics. The first thing Mr. Juan Orbaneja did when he came to Calahonda was to pump out water of the well, where we nowadays can find the children's playground. This water was pumped to a deposit, which had been constructed in the location of the community's office in the Calle Monte Paraiso and from where water was distributed to the first phase. In the year 1969 there was insufficient water, making it necessary to have water supplied by water wagons, during the summertime in order to supply drinking water to all the properties which up to this date had been built. The situation of the water supply did change thanks to the plan of development of the Costa del Sol of 1968 by the construction of the Rio Verde reservoir. Water pipes reached Calahonda thanks to several works carried out and it was possible to supply the Urbanisation with water. It was the responsibility of the Hydro-Graphic del Sur Company to carry out the works on pipe installation around the Urbanisation establishing a right of way. The wells dried out with the exception of the one in Calle Playa. High voltage cables which were tangled up in the Calle de Jordana and Calle Holmdahl area were repaired; cables were put in on the boundaries of the urbanisation as well as low voltage cables and transformers' completing the infrastructure works as far as electrical energy is concerned. All this was carried out in accordance with the agreement signed by the Sevillana electricity company. Another agreement was reached with ICONA in 1966 consisting in planting of pine trees on 120 hectares of land in the Urbanisation. At this time the existing pine wood with an age over eighty years and with trees standing to close one from the other needed to be dealt with, making it necessary to thin out and clean the "erguenes" to save the pine trees as they were drying out and suffered from a pest called "barrenilla", this procedure has been carried out ever since then. In 1966 on the arrival of Mr. Juan Orbaneja, infrastructure works carried out were the ones in Avenida de Espana and Calle de la Playa.

The first houses built were the ones owned by Mariano Medina (the weather man) and Jose de Orbaneja, the first one being built in the area of the beach and the second one in Calle Malaga, presently Club La Naranja. Popular personalities had their houses built in this urbanisation such as the writers Santiago Loren and Edgar Neville and the flamenco dancer La Chunga.

The urbanisation was to be registered under the name of Calahonda, being located in the district of Calahonda, but due to a hotel already being registered under this name, the urbanisation was called Sitio de Calahonda. Later on the Partial Plan of the Urbanisation was modified and a new project was made by Mr. Emilio Garcia Castro, director of the school of architecture in Seville and Prize winner of the Unesco award for Architecture. Avenida de Espana by this time had been already designed and constructed, a series of cul-de-sacs were laid out starting from this Avenue in order to keep the traffic moving on the same and to keep the adjacent streets free from noise, making Calahonda a quiet residential Urbanisation to live in. The Town Hall was much different in these days, with only the Mayor, Mr. Miguel Gonzalez Berral, a secretary and one Municipal Guard. When starting the project, the development of an urbanisation so large, the construction of dwellings for 45,000 inhabitants, it was like thinking that another daydreamer had come to the Costa del Sol. At this time there existed a lot of projects and plans, but nobody could ever imagine that the Costa del Sol would be like it is now at present times. Nevertheless the Mayor gave all kind of facilities, as he was interested in promoting the development of the area, which would mean creation of employment and wealth in the municipality of Mijas. At the commencing of the works it was not thought necessary to have a sewage system included, but the new Urbanisation Plan of 1976 brought changes. The provision of sewage connections in the urbanisation was paramount. For this project several purifiers were constructed at the end of each sys tem, located in Calahonda Beach, Calahonda Park and the nursery. In the year 1984 these purifiers stopped functioning and the Integral Sewage Plan, which consisted of connections to the Costa del Sol Sewage System, was completed.

We would like to mention that at the time the Urbanisation's Partial Plan for phase III of Calahonda was presented for its approval, the developers did not want to make the reservation for the autopista (motorway) due to its uncertain design. In the year 1968, according to the plan the motorway would pass near to Club La Naranja. At this time an association was formed by promoters of the Costa del Sol, lead by Alfonso de Hohenloe. A social economical study was made of the area and thanks to political support the construction of the motorway was stopped and was not included in any further Partial Urbanisation Plan. From then Calahonda's history was to be repeated as the Ministry of public works and Urbanism tried to reserve space for the motorway at the third phase. The works on the projection of the motorway could not be carried out and therefore it took nine years for the Partial Plan to be approved.

In January 1968, the Ministry of public works, in view of the traffic volume in this area found it necessary to create a dual carriageway on the N 340 road. Due to improvements in the communications with Malaga, the Costa del Sol started to enter a period of prosperity. In 1970 the man engaged as commercial director was Mr. Salomon Alsallac Sefardi, an excellent businessman with a clear vision of the future, who predicted that in 25 years time Calahonda would become a very important Urbanisation. He started with sales promotions in the U.S.A. of Calle Malaga, which consisted in the purchase of a 400 m_ plots for 1.400.000 Pesetas, this price included also the construction of 120 m_ and beside this the purchaser was presented with a Seat 600, a Spanish mantilla, a guitar and a bottle of wine. This promotion was a great success as 400 enquiries were received, although in the end only five houses were sold. Initially it was planned to give the streets names of famous persons, but on the advice of Salomon they were finally given impersonal names, as in this way changes in political situations would not mean changes in the names of our streets. It was decided to name the streets after cities and villages, such as Calle Malaga, Jaen, and Sevilla. Some of the streets do have personal names, these persons meaning a lot to the urbanization. Calle Holmdahl is called after a Swedish man, who bought the first villa to live in the Urbanisation. Calle de Jordana is called after the first President of Club La Naranja. Calle Van Dulken is named after the proprietors of the land. Calle Jose de Orbaneja in honour of the man who gambled on an urbanisation project before the development, growth and boom of the coast and Calle Julian Lozano in gratitude for one of the first laborers of Calahonda, who together with Salvador Rios put themselves at the disposal of the Urbanisation day and night and worked arduously for Calahonda.

At the time of starting the urbanising, the installation of a nursery park in Calahonda enabled the planting of grass and palm trees on the pavements, which was thought to be more aesthetic. The pavements of Avenida de Espana, Calle Malaga, Sevilla and Montecalahonda were planted with grass. A chain of hotels, Hoteles Ibericos, decided to convert EI Campanario into a luxurious hotel comprising twelve bedrooms. They also opened a magnificent restaurant where it was usual to see important persons having their lunch or dinner. This restaurant soon became well known because of the good atmosphere and delicious dishes, one of the frequent visitors was Mr. Arturo Rubenstein.

Among the first promoters who came to Calahonda were a group of Italians who bought, 40.000 Mts. in CaboPino, and built a block of apartments called Marina de CaboPino with the characteristic that they were all different. Also special were the accesses to the building and beach. Around this époque the Dutchman Mr. Vandorn had Parque del Sol constructed in the Avenida de Espana, and other promotions followed in C/Monteparaiso. Mr. Pedersen, a Norwegian, constructed in Calle Granada and Almeria. Two men from Malaga Mr. Antonio Marineto and Mr. Joaquin Perez Munoz were the constructors and promoters of Pinares del Mar. Promoting was mainly done by professionals from Malaga. Where today we now find the commercial centers Los Cipreses and EI Campanario, a Pakistani Mr. Yumi Ann originally constructed a tennis court and Mr. Edward Speech and his partner Sandra Smith opened a riding school with stables, offering tuition, contests and excursions on horse back through the pine fields of the upper part of Calahonda. The sport amenities were completed with the construction of Port of CaboPino. The inauguration was celebrated with a big feast with over 1000 persons invited, which included a concert from guitarist Paco de Lucia. From then on every Anniversary was celebrated with sports competitions, beauty contests, dinners and balls in Club La Naranja, with the object of entertaining the residents in the area and to strengthen their union.

In the year 1972 the Community of Owners of Sitio de Calahonda was legally formed with the purpose of keeping the common elements in the urbanisation maintained and improve the same, as the money invested and maintenance by Mijas Town Hall fell short, making it necessary to cover services such as cleaning, public lighting, maintenance of streets and green common belts. The first Board of Directors was formed by several persons, among them Mr. John Woltman (President) and Sandra Smith. These Board members shared the same point of view, "get the best" for Calahonda, and despite tensions and problems, they always worked for the same purpose, 'Calahonda'. It is thanks to this that we can be proud to live in one of the best maintained urbanisations on the Costa del Sol.

At the beginning of the seventies various persons came to Calahonda. They had a clear vision of how our urbanisation would be in the future. Calahonda at this time comprised about 20 properties. Those persons were Jose M Cuevas, Jesus Angel Gonzalez, Jose Guerrero and Jose Alarcon, who taking advantage of the location of the guard's hut (where the Church is situated today) built a supermarket, a gift shop, a restaurant and a bar. This complex was called Las Postas de Calahonda. Likewise companies rendering services were founded which contributed to the prosperity of the urbanisation. The area near the N-340 road was destined for commercial purposes and houses were constructed in the upper part of the urbanisation as the purchasers asked for tranquil, mild, green surroundings with nice views.

In the year 1978 the parish priest of La Gala, Mr. Rodrigo Cabeza, suggested that we should have a church. At these times masses were celebrated in the open air under the pine trees, where at present times the San Miguel church is situated. This was constructed and financed by several parishioners on land ceded to the bishopric. Mr. Rodrigo, a man of great humanity, wanted to see La Cala and Calahonda united and therefore organised a Romeria between both districts. At first the "Santa Teresa" was taken from La Cala to Calahonda in procession by float, afterwards mass was celebrated. Food and drinks carried by each family were shared out, songs and dances were performed by spontaneous choruses. This procession could not continue as during the transition permission was denied to take the "Santa" by float on the N-340 road and so for this reason, from then on the Romeria of "Santa Teresa" was to be celebrated in La Cala, leaving Calahonda abandoned. From that time "San Miguel" was taken in pro- cession by float through the streets of the urbanisation. The reason for the name "San Miguel" was because that was the name of the patron Saint of the Orbaneja family, who donated to the Church a sculpture from the XIV century.

The stages of developing the urbanising can be classified in periods of ten years. Until the year 1973 we had the period of adjustment in looking for and finding that type of urbanisation which fulfilled the wishes of the purchasers, such as plots smaller than foreseen, rendering of services to residents and sport amenities. It was necessary to compete with other existing urbanisations, which relied upon the support of banks and important people living in these urbaniations. This was the case of Nueva Andalucia and Puerto Banus both receiving various kinds of support from bank entities and town halls.

The first ten years were celebrated with a "Fiesta" of a glass of wine and a barbecue for which a bed frame was used in the absence of anything else. This decade was characterised by the strong competition between the urbanisations and the search of each for those identification signs, which determined the difference of one from the other and making the urbanisation as attractive as possible to the possible purchasers. It was necessary to give the urbanisation quality and prestige but in a way that would respect the surroundings and environment. It is for this reason that the properties were fenced with Cyprus trees and sidewalks were planted with grass. Nowadays, with a higher percentage of residents it is more convenient to have more conventional pavements constructed. The following ten years were years of big developments on Calahonda - Hotel Campanario, Las Postas and CaboPino were con- strutted. A start was made on special points of sport and leisure with the construction of tennis courts, the opening of a horse club and sailing sports. In Calahonda Beach the Nautical Club was constructed and with the purchase of three "optimis" and surfboards, the youngsters of Calahonda saw their ability of practicing sports increased without the need to go to other areas. This was a period with lots of celebrations of cultural and sport events, such as organisation of classical music concerts, painting expositions, tennis and golf competitions, cycle races, regattas, athletics. Anniversaries started to be celebrated with big feasts, organising dinners, dances, fancy dress balls, and flamenco shows in Club Naranja, this being the meeting point for Calahonda residents.

We then entered in what was called the transitional period, up until now the development of the Coast had been spectacular but things would change. Suddenly, two international circumstances would make the Coast suffer its first crisis. The international oil crisis and the abolition by Margaret Thatcher of the "Premium Dollar", English tax which burdened export. In 1980, the Orbaneja family completed the construction of Calahonda Beach, an urbanisation with 500 units and 500.000 M². Between 1980 and 1989, 4200 units more were constructed and 2.000.000 M² were urbanised and sold, creating 2.500 jobs. These included 1.500 direct and permanent posts. Mijas Town Hall was to collect 300.000.000 pesetas a year from tax licenses and assesses.

From 1980 on we entered another boom period in this area. Lots of constructions were carried out, the volume was at all times supervised by the urbanising planners and so in the year 1986 instead of 45.000 possible inhabitants, there were only 23.000. Because of the volumes established for our urbanisation, it permitted Calahonda to continue being a tranquil and pleasant place to live without any pressures. The intention was to carry out these promotions according to the idea of Mr. Eduardo Oria. The architect who constructed the Port of Benalmadena, which is a mixture of Mediterranean styles, with a touch of Ibiza, big terraces or solarium and gardens for foreign residents, so they could enjoy the sun, which has been always our best natural resource.