Estepona is chosen by the prestigious international organization The Academy of Urbanism as a finalist for ‘European City of the Year 2023’.

The prestigious award is given by this independent, non-profit organization, which promotes and encourages the recognition of cities in the United Kingdom and Europe that are developing good practices in urban planning.

A delegation of architects and town planners will visit Estepona in September to evaluate different aspects such as quality of life, sustainability and sustainability.

The Estepona City Council informs that the city has been chosen as one of the three finalists for the prestigious international award ‘European City of the Year 2023’. This award is presented by ‘The Academy of Urbanism’, an independent international non-profit organization formed by leaders, thinkers and professionals in urbanism, which promotes and encourages the recognition of cities in the UK and Europe that are developing good practices in urban planning.

In this edition Estepona is the only Spanish city that opts for this award. The other two finalists are Amersfoort (Netherlands) and Exeter (UK). In September, a delegation of architects and urban planners will visit our city to evaluate issues such as the quality of life offered by the municipality, sustainability, environment, local culture and infrastructure, among others.

In addition, representatives of ‘The Academy of Urbanism’ will hold meetings with municipal officials, as well as with local residents and owners of commercial establishments.

Those responsible for ‘The Academy of Urbanism’ have explained that Estepona has managed to be one of the three finalists this year for the ambitious pedestrianization project that has been carried out in the old town, for the initiative to unite its entire coastline through the coastal corridor, for its network of public parking at a cost of one euro per day or for betting on culture through facilities such as the Mirador El Carmen or initiatives such as the Route of Artistic Murals or the Poetry Route.

‘The Academy of Urbanism’ highlights “the courage” and “audacity” that the city has had to become a city that is committed to quality of life through the project ‘Estepona, Garden of the Costa del Sol’.

The mayor of Estepona, José María García Urbano, has shown his “enormous satisfaction” because an independent international organization with such prestige as ‘The Academy of Urbanism’ has “set its eyes on Estepona, Garden of the Costa del Sol’.

Urbanism’ has “set its eyes” on “the great transformation and progress in sustainability that Estepona has had” and considers the municipality as a benchmark at European level of modern, sustainable, quality of life and environmentally friendly city.

In that sense, he recalled the modernization has experienced Estepona in the last twelve years places it at the level of other destinations that have become international benchmarks of exemplary modernization as is the case of Bilbao, which won the award for Best European City in 2018 and San Sebastian, which achieved it in 2016.

These awards have been granted since 2007. Other cities that have obtained this award are Copenhagen, Lisbon, Berlin, Edinburgh or Rotterdam.