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In the Low Empire, and especially from the times of the Visigode presence, many archaeological Christian testimonies appear, such as bricks with inscriptions, ceramics with symbols and reliefs, especially in Malaga, Cartama and Torox. There is the paeleo-christian basilisk of San Pedro de Alcantara which is a splendid example of religious architecture in the 6th century.

The long presence of the Muslims in these lands allows us to have a rich historic-artistic heritage which starts to form much before the Al-andalus splendour gave way to the large Muslim art works.

There is a Mozarabic construction which belongs to the first years of the Muslim presence: the small cave church of Bobastro in Ardales, which presents the originality of being caved into the rock.

Among the military architecture in the province there are two buildings: La Alcazaba and the Gibralfaro Castle which are both in the city of Malaga. In the case of the Alcazaba, the works and most ancient outbuildings we can see, belong to the days of the Taifa in Malaga. The ones we know from the 11th century seem to be an practice exercise for the large palace city of the Alhambra. In the 14th century, the precinct was generally repaired adding elements which can be seen in the Granada monument. The Castle of Gibralfaro could be previous to the Alcazaba but the oldest part still standing belongs to the caliphal era.

During the 13th and 14th century, a proliferation of defence towers are massively built over older castles. Other were built with double precincts, rounded passage ways, homage towers such as Gaucin, Casares, Cartama, Comares or Alora. Christian military influenced architectures also appear in the 13th century such as the vaulting of the towers in Teba and Cañete la Real.

There were large citadels and military precincts in Ronda, Cañete la Real and Antequera, as well as forts in Comares, Archidona and Cartama. The largest part of the forts in the province are concentrated in the Guadalhorce valley: Ardales, Casarabonela, Alora, Yunquera, Alozaina, Monda, Coin and both Alhaurines.

The religious architecture is represented by numerous mosques of which we have only received a few. The most important one was the Mezquita Mayor in Malaga, where the Cathedral rises today. From the caliphal era, 9th to 10th century, there is the mosque of Archidona, the only one which is almost entirely conserved. Other mosques, such as the Archez and Salares conserve their excellent minarets. These and others, such as the Benaque in Macharaviaya, Arenas, Columbela in Sayalonga, Daimalos in Arenas, San Sebastian in Ronda, El Burgo, Parauta, Igualeja, etc., have left important signs of Mudejar art in the province.

Among the civil architecture there is the Ataranzas building, a Nazari work which today conserves the doorway, reworked and used as the entrance to the present Central Market in the city of Malaga. Next to the Ataranzas door, the Almocabar door and the Ronda baths are other excellent samples of civil architecture.