English and the World · Spain · 15 · Málaga · A1–C2 · Free
A seaside resort from 1918, the city’s first football ground, and a club that went from its first match in 1904 to the Primera División in 2026. Choose your level.
Pedregalejo, Málaga
Los Baños del Carmen is a famous place by the sea in Málaga. It opened on 16 July 1918.
A hundred years ago, there was a beach, a restaurant and a big dance floor. There were tennis courts and an outdoor cinema. In 1922, there was a football ground too: the first football ground in Málaga.
People came by tram from the city centre. They swam in the sea, danced at night and watched films under the stars.
Today, the old gate is still there, and there is a restaurant with beautiful sunsets.
From 1904 to today
The first football match in Málaga was on 3 April 1904, near the Fuente de las Tres Gracias. The result was 1–1.
From 1922 to 1941, the city’s teams played at the Baños del Carmen. In 1941, a new stadium opened: La Rosaleda. Málaga CF plays there today.
In June 2026, Málaga CF went up to the Primera División, the top league in Spain. The fans were very happy!
Language: there was / there were and the past simple
| What | How | Example |
|---|---|---|
| One thing in the past | there was + a / an | There was a restaurant. |
| More than one thing in the past | there were + plural | There were tennis courts. |
| Regular verbs | verb + -ed | open → opened, play → played, dance → danced |
| Irregular verbs | learn them! | come → came, swim → swam, go → went, be → was / were |
Read the texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end.
Choose the best answer.
1. When did the Baños del Carmen open?
2. What was there in 1922?
3. How did people go there?
4. Where does Málaga CF play today?
Write was or were.
5. In 1918, there a beach and a restaurant.
6. There tennis courts.
7. There an outdoor cinema.
8. There a lot of people at the match.
Write the verb in the past simple.
9. The Baños del Carmen (open) in 1918.
10. People (come) by tram.
11. They (swim) in the sea.
12. In 2026, Málaga CF (go) up to the Primera División.
Go there!
Where: the Baños del Carmen are by the sea, near Pedregalejo. You can take bus 11, 33 or 34.
Your task: imagine you went there last weekend. Write four sentences. Start like this: Last weekend I went to the Baños del Carmen. There was… There were… I…
Málaga, a hundred years ago
At the start of the twentieth century, new ways of spending free time were arriving in Spain: bathing in the sea, tennis, the cinema, dancing, and a new sport from Britain called football. In Málaga, many of them met in one place by the sea.
Read both texts, then do the practice.
Pedregalejo, Málaga, 1918 to today
On 16 July 1918, the day of the Virgen del Carmen, a new seaside resort opened on the coast east of Málaga, near the fishing village of Pedregalejo. Its official name was the Balneario Nuestra Señora del Carmen, but everybody called it the Baños del Carmen.
It was modelled on the fashionable seaside resorts of northern Spain, like Santander and San Sebastián, and it was just a tram ride from the city centre. Doctors recommended sea bathing for good health, and people would spend whole summer days there, swimming, walking and meeting friends.
The Baños del Carmen grew quickly. In the 1920s it added a pier, an outdoor cinema, a restaurant with a large dance floor, and the first tennis courts in Málaga, where the city’s first tennis tournament was played. In 1922 it also opened Málaga’s first proper football ground, which the city’s teams used until 1941.
For more than forty years, the Baños del Carmen was the place to be in Málaga. People would dance there on summer nights and watch films under the stars. But after the 1960s, the old resort slowly fell into decline, and for many years it was half abandoned.
Today, the old entrance gate still stands, and the restaurant El Balneario is famous for its sunsets. The area is being restored, and it is on its way to becoming a protected heritage site.
From the Tres Gracias to La Rosaleda
Football arrived in Spain from Britain at the end of the nineteenth century. In Málaga, a group of football enthusiasts met at the Liceo in 1904 and founded the Málaga Foot-ball Club. On 3 April 1904, the club’s members played the first recorded match in the city, two teams against each other, on land taken from the sea, where the Fuente de las Tres Gracias stands today. The match ended 1–1.
At first, Málaga had no proper football ground, and teams would play wherever they could find space, even on the Muelle Heredia in the port. Several rival clubs appeared, such as FC Malagueño and Real Málaga FC. In 1922, the city’s first real football ground opened at the Baños del Carmen, by the sea. In 1933 two clubs joined to form the CD Malacitano, which reached the Segunda División for the first time in 1934.
In 1941, a new stadium opened: La Rosaleda. The club changed its name to CD Málaga, and the last match at the Baños del Carmen was played that spring, a 3–1 win against Xerez. Fans soon got used to their new home. One of their best memories from those years is a famous 6–0 win against Real Madrid in the 1952–53 season.
The CD Málaga closed in 1992 because of money problems, but its reserve team carried on, and in 1994 it became Málaga CF. In 2013, Málaga CF reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Then came hard times: the club was relegated in 2018, and in 2023 it dropped to the third division.
The fans never stopped believing. The team came back to the Segunda in 2024, and on 20 June 2026, after a 2–1 win in Almería in the play-off final, Málaga CF was promoted to the Primera División after eight years away. For big celebrations, Málaga fans traditionally gather at the Fuente de las Tres Gracias, the same place where the first match was played, 122 years before the promotion.
From a 1–1 draw on reclaimed land to the Primera División.
Language: used to, would, be used to, get used to
| Form | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| used to + verb | a past habit or state that is not true now | Málaga used to have no proper football ground. |
| would + verb | a repeated action in the past (not for states) | People would dance there on summer nights. |
| be used to + -ing / noun | something is normal or familiar for you | Fans are used to waiting for success. |
| get used to + -ing / noun | something becomes normal for you | Fans soon got used to their new stadium. |
⚠️ would is only for repeated actions. “Málaga would have no football ground” is wrong, because have is a state here: use used to.
Fact or not sure?
| Statement | Status | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The Baños del Carmen opened on 16 July 1918 | Fact | All the sources agree. |
| Men and women always bathed together there | Not sure | One source calls it Málaga’s first mixed bathing resort; another says men and women first bathed separately. |
| It had Málaga’s first tennis courts | Fact | Several sources agree, including the first tennis tournament. |
| La Rosaleda opened in September 1941 | Not sure | The first match was played in April 1941; the official opening was in September. |
| Today’s Málaga CF is the same club as the one founded in 1904 | Not sure | The club sees itself as the same; legally, it is a chain of clubs that followed one another. |
| Málaga CF was promoted to the Primera División on 20 June 2026 | Fact | It won the play-off final against Almería. |
Read both texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
Choose the best answer.
1. Why did the Baños del Carmen open on 16 July?
2. Which resorts was it modelled on?
3. Where did Málaga’s teams play from 1922 to 1941?
4. Where was the first recorded match played in 1904?
5. What happened after the CD Málaga closed in 1992?
6. What happened on 20 June 2026?
Write the missing word or words.
7. Málaga have no proper football ground.
8. On summer nights, people dance by the sea.
9. After 1941, fans soon got to La Rosaleda.
10. I live by the beach, so I’m used to (hear) the waves at night.
11. In 2023, fans had to get used to (watch) their team in the third division.
12. The players to be amateurs, but now they are professionals.
Choose the best answer.
13. Which sentence is wrong?
14. “I’m used to the heat.” What does it mean?
15. A new student says: “The timetable is very different here. I ___ it yet.”
16. “People used to take the tram to the Baños del Carmen.” What does it tell us?
Where do these words come from?
17. Balneario comes from Latin balneum. What did it mean?
18. Stadium comes from Greek stadion. What was it?
19. Tennis probably comes from the French word tenez! What does it mean?
Getting there and what to do
Where: the Baños del Carmen are on the seafront east of the city centre, at the start of Pedregalejo (calle Bolivia, 26). City buses 11, 33 and 34 stop nearby.
A seafront walk: start at the Fuente de las Tres Gracias, where the first match was played in 1904, and walk east along the sea past the Malagueta beach to the Baños del Carmen. Find the old entrance gate, then watch the sunset from the Balneario terrace.
Your task: write a message to an English-speaking friend who is visiting Málaga. Recommend the walk and tell them two things about the history of the Baños del Carmen or of football in Málaga. Use used to or would at least twice (80–100 words).
The Baños del Carmen, 1918 to today
When the Balneario Nuestra Señora del Carmen opened on 16 July 1918, sea bathing was still something of a novelty in Málaga, and a respectable one only because doctors recommended it. Its promoters modelled it on the fashionable resorts of the Cantabrian coast, Santander and San Sebastián, where the aristocracy had long been accustomed to taking the waters, and they gave it the one thing a resort on the edge of a growing city needed: a tram stop at the gate.
Never before had Málaga had a place devoted so entirely to pleasure. Within a few years the resort had added a pier, an open-air cinema, a restaurant with a vast dance floor, and the city’s first tennis courts, on which its first tennis tournament was played. In 1922 it acquired something even more modern: Málaga’s first proper football ground. Families would spend whole summer days there; couples would dance until late; on hot evenings the city would watch films under the stars, a few metres from the sea.
It was also, by the standards of its time, a place of new freedoms. One modern French account goes so far as to describe it as the scene of a revolution in manners, though the sources do not agree on how quickly the old segregation of men and women in the water disappeared. For four decades the Baños del Carmen was the place to be seen; after the 1960s, it slowly decayed, and for many years it was half abandoned, kept alive by a single restaurant and the most admired sunsets in the city.
Today the site is being regenerated. A breakwater almost 200 metres long is being built out from the Punta del Morlaco to hold a new beach in place, and the resort is on its way to becoming a Bien de Interés Cultural. Not everyone agrees on what it should become: a heritage site, a public park, a beach, or something more commercial.
Football in Málaga, 1904–2026
Football reached Málaga, as it reached most of Spain, from Britain. In 1904 a group of enthusiasts meeting at the Liceo founded the Málaga Foot-ball Club, and on 3 April its members played the first recorded match in the city on land reclaimed from the sea, where the Fuente de las Tres Gracias now stands. It ended 1–1.
What followed was less a single club than a succession of them. FC Malagueño appeared in 1912; a Málaga FC was founded in 1921, became Real Málaga FC in 1927 and, sinking into debt, was reborn as Málaga Sport Club in 1930. In 1933 the two great rivals merged to form the CD Malacitano, which reached the Segunda División in 1934. Not until 1941 did the city have a modern stadium, La Rosaleda; the last match by the sea, a 3–1 cup win over Xerez, had been played that March, and the club took the name CD Málaga.
No sooner had the club settled in its new home than it began to write its legend, which includes a 6–0 victory over Real Madrid in 1952–53. Yet in 1992 the CD Málaga folded, crushed by debt. Only because its reserve team, the Club Atlético Malagueño, was registered independently did football in the city survive: in 1994 it became Málaga CF, which regards itself as the same club, and whose fans certainly do.
The modern era has been one of extremes. In 2013 Málaga CF reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League; ten years later it had fallen into the third tier. Supporters grew accustomed to visiting grounds they had never heard of. Then came the revival: promotion back to the Segunda in 2024, and on 20 June 2026, after finishing fourth and winning the play-off final 2–1 in Almería, a return to the Primera División after eight seasons away.
Language: nostalgia, change and emphasis
| What we do | How | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Evoke repeated past actions (often nostalgic) | would + verb (actions only) | Couples would dance until late. |
| Contrast a past state or habit with now | used to + verb | Málaga used to have no proper stadium. |
| Formal: be / get used to | be / become / grow accustomed to + -ing / noun | Fans grew accustomed to visiting unknown grounds. |
| Emphasise that something was unprecedented | Never before had + subject + past participle | Never before had Málaga had such a place. |
| Emphasise a late moment | Not until … did + subject + verb | Not until 1941 did the city have a stadium. |
| One event immediately after another | No sooner had … than … | No sooner had it settled than it began to win. |
| Stress a single condition | Only because / Only after … + inversion | Only because the reserve team was independent did football survive. |
Evidence and debate
| Question | What the sources say |
|---|---|
| Was it Málaga’s first mixed bathing resort? | One source says so; another says men and women first bathed separately. Both may be true at different dates. |
| When did La Rosaleda open? | The first match was played in April 1941; the official opening was in September. |
| Is Málaga CF the club of 1904? | The club and its fans say yes; legally it is a chain of successor clubs, through mergers, a dissolution and a reserve team. |
| What should the Baños del Carmen become? | A matter of opinion: heritage, public space, beach or business, or a mixture. |
Debate: If every part of a ship is replaced over the years, is it still the same ship? Apply the old puzzle of the “Ship of Theseus” to Málaga CF. What makes a club the same club: its name, its legal registration, its stadium, its colours, or its fans?
Read both texts first. Press “Check my answers” at the end.
Choose the best answer.
1. Why was sea bathing “respectable” in 1918, according to the text?
2. Why does the writer mention the tram stop?
3. What is the writer’s attitude to the claim of a “revolution in manners”?
4. What does “less a single club than a succession of them” mean?
5. Why did football in Málaga survive the collapse of 1992?
6. “The modern era has been one of extremes.” Which pair of facts supports this?
Write the missing word or words.
7. Not until 1941 the city have a modern stadium.
8. Never before Málaga had a place devoted so entirely to pleasure.
9. No sooner had the resort opened it became fashionable.
10. Supporters grew accustomed (visit) grounds they had never heard of.
11. On hot evenings the city watch films under the stars.
12. Only because the reserve team was registered independently football in the city survive.
Choose the best answer.
13. Which sentence is correct?
14. Which sentence is correct?
15. Which is the most formal?
16. What does the inversion add in “Never before had Málaga had such a place”?
Where do these words come from?
17. Nostalgia joins Greek nostos and algos. What do they mean?
18. A football fan is, in origin, a…
19. Resort comes from Old French resortir. What did it first mean?
An opinion piece
Visit: walk from the Fuente de las Tres Gracias along the seafront to the Baños del Carmen (about an hour), or take bus 11, 33 or 34. Look at the regeneration works: what is changing, and what is being kept?
Write (220–260 words): a letter to the editor of a Málaga newspaper. What should the Baños del Carmen become? Argue your case, and use at least three forms from the lesson: would, used to, accustomed to, and one inversion (Never before…, Not until…, Only if…).