These are the Costa del Sol locations where The Snow Girl 2 was filmed

The series of the moment has put Malaga on the map. The Snow Girl 2: The Soul Game has once again become number 1 on Netflix's Spanish schedule with its adaptation of local author Javier Castillo's book, which recounts the case of a girl found crucified and another who has disappeared in the capital of the Costa del Sol. The recognisable scenes are mixed with other locations that are wholly unrecognisable, or those that ring some bells but are still nothing like the reality. This is the case with the appearance of the SUR newsroom in the fictional story and yet many readers are asking us if it is the same as the real newspaper's offices. This article, which includes locations from La Araña to Benalmádena, aims to answer all these questions. Another of the unknowns as to locations used in this second season of the crime thriller is the school where the victims were studying. We can now reveal that we have solved the mystery: it is not in Malaga at all, but in Madrid, and what looks like a single school is actually three different, completely unrelated buildings.

The series gets off to a strong start with the appearance of a crucified girl found dead in an abandoned building. This is not just any old location, but a tourist icon in Malaga, the Marymar building, now a ruin.

Built as a hotel and then a retirement home, the Marymar was closed in 2011. Its deterioration and its location by the sea led the location scouts for this production to focus on the property in a scene that includes the arrival of police detectives Millán and Chaparro by car to Sunset Beach to inspect the crime scene at the old hotel. A violent murder that gives a real sense of this darker and more gruesome second season. An interesting aside, Aixa Villagrán (playing detective Millán), learned to drive on the sand to nail this scene.

The second season travels through Malaga by car in several scenes. In one of the first scenes the two main characters, Milena Smit (journalist Miren Rojo) and Miki Esparbé (Jaime, Miren's new colleague), talk about the case of the murdered girl and its connection to a disappearance years ago. One of the first scenes takes them from Malaga city's central park to the Alameda, where a drone image offers a panoramic view of Miren's VW as they drive to the school where the first victim was a pupil.

The characteristic Malaga buses, the Eduardo Ocón auditorium and Customs House (Aduana) appear in these shots, visible through the windows of the car, inside of which the tension - thanks to the SUR journalist's refusal to work with the colleague that's been imposed on her by the newspaper's editor - is palpable.

Miren Rojo's meeting with her mentor (and colleague in season one), Eduardo, played by José Coronado, was filmed in a well-known venue in the city centre, Le Grand Café, which is located along one of the banks of the Guadalmedina river.

The large windows of this business location serve to stage the squabble between disciple and master, when the veteran journalist and university professor warns her that she is becoming obsessed with the case, as happened with the disappearance of the girl Amaya (first season of this popular saga). The journalist responds by accusing the professor of being rusty in his game, which leads to the latter's departure along the recognisable Guimbarda Pasillo (underpass), with Trinidad bridge visible in the background. Harsh words that Miren will end up regretting.

There is no shortage of seaside scenes in the The Snow Girl saga. In addition to the beaches, in this second season Malaga Port also has a role to play.

To be precise, the scene is in the area dedicated to the fishing port where Nacho (played by Hugo Wetzel), the brother of Laura Valdivia who disappeared years ago, works. Looking for clues to this case, journalist Miren Rojo arrives at this dock to interview the young man who is not comfortable with the visit as he works there to help pay for his studies at the elite public school in Malaga where the crucified girl also belonged. The city serves as a backdrop to the interrogation, with the Muelle de Heredia and the peaks of the Equitativa and the Cathedral looming between all the other buildings.

Many readers and viewers of The Snow Girl books wonder if the SUR newsroom is exactly as it appears in the series based on the novel by Javier Castillo. The answer is that these fictional offices with an industrial appearance have little to do with reality.

The indoor scenes were filmed in a Madrid warehouse converted into a newsroom, while the exterior of the newspaper building was recreated in the former Casa Pedro, now the Grand Café del Palo. With the façade painted red and the newspaper's recognisable logo, the meeting between Miren and Jaime takes place at the doors of the Palo building, where they make peace and begin to work together with the hypothesis that Laura's disappearance and Alison's death are related.

One of the star locations of this second season is the Mangas Verdes district, where the crucified girl, Alison, lived. Here was filmed the most spectacular scene of this sequel with a rooftop pursuit in this well-known part of Malaga city.

In a scene more common of a crime story based in New York, detective Chaparro (played by Malaga-born actor Marco Cáceres) runs and jumps from rooftop to rooftop in pursuit of a junkie in a fast-paced scene that makes the most of this characteristic area of steep streets and tightly-joined houses of all shapes and sizes. Nothing like this has been filmed in this setting since the shooting and escape captured in 'El Lute II: Tomorrow I'll be Free', starring Imanol Arias, released in 1988.

The Snow Girl saga's fondness for El Palo and the eastern area also includes the location where the late Laura Valdivia lived in the fictional tale. This flat is set in Calle Le Corbusier where her brother Nacho also lives with their aunt and uncle, as their parents died years ago in an accident.

Journalists Jaime and Miren go to the home of this family known for their religious fundamentalism, which leads the sleuths of SUR's crime section to suspect that there is a hidden story behind Laura's sudden disappearance. Andalusian actors Mari Paz Sayago and Vicente Romero play these two guardians.

The thriving cultural scee in Malaga also gets a look-in with this sequel with the opening of an exhibition at the Jorge Rando Museum in the popular and central district of Molinillo.

The courtyard and the exhibition rooms are visited by the journalist Jaime (played by Miki Esparbé), although his intention is not to chronicle the art exhibition for the culture section of his newspaper employers, but to talk to the mother of the former boyfriend of the missing Laura Valdivia to get her to let him talk directly with her son. The boy, who belongs to an influential family in Malaga, was accused of the girl's disappearance, which is why he disappeared off the map, although this does not prevent the reporter from trying to interview the young man, played by Malaga-born Nacho Montes.

The next location already appeared in the first season and makes a repeat appearance in the second. The terrace of Malaga's contemporary arts centre (CAC Málaga) is the setting for a meeting between inspector Millán and police commissioner Inma.

The first, tired of investigating murders without much success and feeling surrounded by the evil of humans, wants to change her life and move to a different area of police work, but her superior tries to convince her otherwise while we can see into the distance the sea, the dry riverbed of the Guadalmedina and the central Correos (post office) building. The scene was filmed months before the museum was closed for refurbishment.

In his investigation into the crucified girl and a possible connection to the case of the young woman who disappeared a decade ago, Jaime reaches out to the former boyfriend of the latter, who lives a life that has him obsessing over the loss of his partner and very much keeping to himself on a boat anchored in Benalmádena's marina. The plot has this place located as though in Malaga city, La Araña to be precise, as can be seen when the journalist drives to their meeting. However, La Araña has no port, no marina. The artistic licence in fiction.

Another recognisable scene is that of the florist, whose stall, due to the demands of the script, is located on Malaga's seafront in the middle of the Paseo Marítimo Ciudad de Melilla near Muelle Uno. There, the impatient Miren and the quick-thinking Jaime, instead of heading off to eat grilled sardines at a beach bar on La Malagueta beach, buy some flowers to convince the stallholder to tell them what he knows about the deceased girl.

La Araña is also a repeat location for The Snow Girl saga and it is used in several scenes for season two. The pedestrian tunnel that passes under the MA-24 road is the setting for journalist Miren Rojo's encounter with a boy who suffered an accident while participating in 'the soul game' (a perilously gruesome, online test of faith and loyalty considered to be behind the disappearances of several teenagers).

In addition, the house of a retired teacher from the school to which the victims belonged is located in one of the old houses with privileged views of the sea in this corner of Malaga city. The scene starring the teacher, played by Fanny de Castro ('La suerte dormida' and 'Amador'), an essential actress on the Malaga stage, was filmed there.

Pedregalejo is also home to the disco that forms part of journalist Miren Rojo's past, to which she returns in search of clues to the Soul Game that has become her latest obsession. So driven is she that she overcomes her own fears and returns to this crime scene set amid old fishermen's houses, now converted into businesses and beach bars.

To the scenes in the eastern part of Malaga city we must add a location on the Arroyo Galica bridge in El Palo. Although a beach scene, it has that cold, fragile atmosphere of winter where Miren has a meeting under this unusual footbridge with the brother of the girl who disappeared years ago, a young man who has not got over the loss.

The on-screen exterior of Malaga's police station is once again set in the old immigration detention centre (CIE) in Malaga. In this scene the press awaits the departure of one of the characters in the plot who has been arrested.

If you look closely you will not only recognise the Plaza de Capuchinos, but also some real SUR journalists appearing as extras playing SUR journalists at the gates of this fictional police headquarters. You only see them briefly, but here are their names: Cristina Pinto, Almudena Nogués, Isabel Méndez, Marina Martínez, Rafael Cortés, Juan Soto, Rossel Aparicio, Ana Barreales, Salvador Salas and crime reporter Irene Quirante. All adding a little credibility to the scene.

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