Archive for May, 2010

Marbella in Spain is a place rich in history over many thousands of years. Many civilisations have made this one of their favourite places the Greeks, Phoenicians, Moors, Arabians, Huns and the Carthaginians to name just a few.

In the later half of the 20th Century Marbella became famous as a tourist destination starting form the early 1950′s for the rich and famous.

Princess Margaret and Michael Jackson have both stayed at the Los Monteros Hotel on the Costa del Sol now sadly closed.

The growth of Marbella as a tourist and area for the rich and famous to visit started after the end of the Second World War in 1945.

The start of the growth as Marbella as a place to be , to be seen, to relax and wine and dine started I believe as do many others with the Marbella Club hotel which was and is set in a beautiful spot by the sea.

It all started back in 1946 just one year after the second World War , when Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe together with his father, Prince Maximiliano came to Marbella with the thought of purchasing land.

The very next year in 1947, Prince Alfonso’s family purchased an old farm house which was known then as Finca Santa Margarita initially as a family home.

This Finca was originally a farm that stood on some 18 hectares in a beautiful location adjacent to the Marbella sea shore.

As visitors, family and friends, to the ‘finca’ kept increasing so at the same time the property also had to grow and soon it was only a matter of time when the Prince with his own ever effervescent enthusiasm and forward thinking ideas that he started to make his own personal dream into reality by transforming his family’s private residence into an exclusive club.

So with in some seven years of the original purchase of the Finca the Marbella Club Hotel opened its doors to the public and it would be fair to say that it has never looked back since.

When the Marbella Club Hotel first opened there were two wings with 18 rooms in total eight rooms in one wing and ten rooms in the other. There was also one more room in the tower and this had a suite next to it.

The dining room, bar and lounge were still in the main part of the original finca.

Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe was actually born in Madrid the capital of Spain in 1924, and he was the first son of Prince von Hohenlohe and Princess Piedad de Iturbe. He was also luckily enough to be the godson of King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia

He passed away in 2003 in Marbella the City that he loved so much and indeed helped to create.

He was so well liked and respected that the City of Marbella re-named one of their main roads after him , the Bulevar Príncipe Alfonso de Hohenlohe.

As the years passed the city quickly became known as the exclusive retreat of many international film celebrities’.

As one example Sean Connery OO7 had a villa here named Casa Malibu. It is said that he entertained many famous and well known film and sporting personalities such as Michael Caine, George Best, Richard Burton, Omar Sharif, Honor Blackman, George Best and the racing driver James Hunt.

I cannot in a brief article such as this mention all those famous who have visited Marbella but I must mention that Marbella has had for many years very good relations with the late King of Saudi Arabia King Fahd.

He had a beautiful palace built with the Sword of his country emblazoned in the garden and a very nice mosque on the Golden Mile.

He also had his own bank branch here (now closed)on the golden mile and his Motor Yacht – Shaf was kept and still is in the Harbour of Puerto Banus.

This all helped to make Marbella the internationally famous and well known coastal resort that it is today, related to sailing, golf, wining and dining and of course tourism in Spain.

Marbella has had some problems in the recent past with planning issues but is rapidly recovering to yet again become the Jewell in the crown of the “Costa del Sol” in Spain.