Queen Fabiola: A Belgian monarch born in Spain

Calle Reina Fabiola in Malaga isn't the only reference to the Spanish-born Belgian queen in southern Spain. She also owned Villa Astrida, a holiday home in Motril, Granada province, which she and her husband, King Baudouin of Belgium, purchased in 1967.

It was while on holiday there that King Baudouin died of a heart attack on 31 July 1993 at the age of 62, after a 42-year reign.

However, Villa Astrida was to make the headlines again in 2013, a year before the Queen Consort Fabiola's death.

The house was wrapped up in a scandal about a private foundation Fabiola had set up in 2012, which was widely seen among Belgians as a way to avoid paying the country's 70 per cent inheritance tax.

The home should have been transferred to the foundation and listed as such, the Belgian press reported in June 2013. However, investigations at the time suggested that this was not the case.

Since July 2023 Villa Astrida has been open to the public as the King Baudouin Memorial. It offers an in-depth look at the life and legacy of King Baudouin.

Fabiola de Mora y Aragon was born at her family's Zurbano Palace in Madrid on 11 June 1928. Her father was the Marquess of Casa Riera, whose family had made a fortune from mining in the nineteenth century.

She was a goddaughter of Queen Victoria Eugenie, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria and her mother was Doña Blanca de Aragón y Carillo de Albornoz, whose family had strong links to the Spanish royal family.

The couple did not have any children and the crown was passed to Fabiola's brother-in-law Albert, who abdicated in 2013 passing the role= to his son Crown Prince Philippe.

Queen Fabiola died aged 86 on 5 December 2014 at the Stuyvenberg Castle in Brussels after a long period of ill health.