Those who know Melilla, also know a great part of today’s cultural and social development. Five cultures, five pillars of today’s civilization, decided to lay the foundations of a social coexistence in all its aspects in this small city and, in this way, create a melting pot of identities by the Mediterranean sea. Situated on the south-eastern coast of the Tres Forcas Peninsula, in the African continent and bathed by the Mediterranean sea, Melilla possess, as one of its most interesting features, the coexistence of five cultures , five different ways of sharing the twelve square kilometres of its territory.

Five different points of view that the Christian community, Hebrew, Muslin, Gipsy and the small Hindu community share. In its daily life, in its streets and buildings, in its shops, celebrations and festivals, Melilla is a mirror of these five views that infect each other to make up a single city with many faces.

The essence of everyday life blends with the singularity and the feeling of respect for differences, sharing a cosmopolitan view of a world that is strongly consolidating its multiethnic and multicultural richness as the true pillar of social and democratic integration. As one of our presidents once said: “it is possible to enjoy the Muslim Ramadan, the Jewish Yon Kippur, the Hindu Holim festivity and Christmas with the same intensity and devotion”.

Far from folk connotations, our city goes for interculturality, and it commits itself to strengthen the ties with other ethnic groups with different cultures, enriching us as individuals as well as a community. Fernando Arrabal pointed that strength that can be found in the essence of this city: its ability to integrate different wisdom in its heart. Its tolerant way of life.

Apart from its monumental, historic and cultural heritage, Melilla offers a fragile but valuable treasure, that promoting coexistence, tolerance and racial mixture. Our city wants to show and share it, and in this way enrich it.