
No one has ever fallen for the Basque County quite like Archduchess Maria Christina.
An exquisite pianist and polyglot, she left the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy to marry King Alfonso of Spain in 1879, and built a palatial holiday home on the shores of San Sebastian following a beguiling stately visit. In her Basque hideaway, she swam in the Bay of Biscay, gambled in a Monte Carlo-style casino she had erected and drank cocktails with renowned guests, the UK’s own Queen Victoria among them. Today, her statue overlooks La Concha beach, gazing eternally across a corner of the world Maria Christina believed possessed a certain kind of magic.