It's no surprise that Malaga is the capital city of the province of Malaga and its current flag was designed and adopted in 1978. It's divided vertically into two equal parts, purple on the left and green on the right, with the city's coat of arms.
The coat of arms was granted by the catholic monarchs after the capture of the city by them in the 15th century. What is more the design in the centre of the flag is based on the flag of the maritime province of Malaga.

The coat of arms is made up of Malaga city and Mount Gibralfaro, against red, the silver waves against blue, and the prisoners enclosed are in black and white. The ornaments are gold and the background is half purple half green. Lastly the saints have gold halos, blue cloaks and gold tunics as well as the colour of Saint Paula.
It's thought that the colour purple is said to have come from the colour of the tunics worn by Hannibal's army against the Celts and Gauls. Also in some religions purple symbolizes power. There's also an idea that assumes that green and purple are associated with the natural colours of Mount Gibralfaro, purple when the sunlight hits the rocks and green for the vegetation.

The colours in the coat of arms haven't changed since the 16th century but there have been minor changes in the inscriptions there's the depiction of the city's patrons Saints Syriacus and Saint Paula. There's also the Spanish kings and the inscription translates to "most faithful historic traditions"
The others read "always bold" and "the first to defend threatened liberty". Above the shield is the Spanish royal crown with precious stones but that's not surprising as this is common for many Spanish flags.
The yoke and arrows is a symbol dating back to the dystonic union of Spain's catholic monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella the first of Castile.

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