Between Historic Sites and New Tourist Destinations: The Development of the First Periphery in Medium-sized Andalusian Coastal Cities (1950-1980)

This study aims to analyze the urban growth experienced in the third quarter of the 20th century in medium-sized cities (1950-1980). These cities can be considered as relevant referents in their countries, although their population is lower than in regional centres (over 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants). Furthermore, they have been recently recognized as an opportunity to promote more sustainable territorial strategies. Nevertheless, there are still gaps in many fields. The so-called first urban periphery was built in response to urging quantitative needs of the European existing housing. This was at the end of the mid-century wars, due to massive migration from the countryside to the cities in the whole continent. Sharing many of the morphological and pathological features with their equivalents, Spanish cities would have introduced certain peculiarities in their development because of the sociopolitical context marked by strong state control. This general framework of housing was completed with the implementation of some policies developed in the 1960s. Tourism was used as one of the growth engines of Spain's economy. Within this context, this research takes the Andalusian coast as a geographical framework and it intends to identify two different processes that have determined the urban development of these cities. On one hand, there are urban areas that have experienced a progressive demographic growth and have remained within the population range that defines a medium-sized city during this time. On the other hand, many towns have undergone an exponential evolution, moving from the features assimilated to rural settlements, to qualities of a medium-size city. In the final analysis, the purpose of this paper is to examine how historic sites have responded to this duality, as well as to determine if their protection has been decisive in the type of development that they have experienced.