Marbella Districts - Los Rodeos

Puerto Banús - Los Rodeos

In the late 1940s the area between the Rio Guadaliza and the Rio Verde was known as Rodeo Alto and Rodeo Bajo. The story goes that at a chance meeting in Madrid, Ricardo Soriano, Marqués de Ivanrrey, bought unseen 220,000 m2 of farming land from Norberto Goizueta (promotor of Guadalmina) for 110,000 pesetas.

When Ricardo Soriano later travelled to Marbella to review his new purchase, he realised that it was located on an important route for the French, who travelled overland to their Moroccan protectorate via the port of Algeciras. He decided to open the Venta y Alberge de El Rodeo, a simple lodging opened in 1944 unlike the glamorous Marbella Club Hotel that his cousin, Alfonso Hohenlohe, later opened in 1954.

In the years that followed, Ricardo Soriano subdivided his finca (estate) and persuaded his friends, the likes of Edward Neville (Casa Malibu), Antonio el Bailador (Casa Martinete), and actress Conchita Montes, to buy plots of his land and build their houses by the sea.

On the main road the estate is now fronted by the Hotel Bluebay Banus, which for many years was called Hotel El Rincon Andaluz.

Entering the urbanisation by the Avenida de las Mimosas, you can immediately see the faded grandeur. In the centre of the road are planters with old fountains and ceramic tiles. Ahead is La Campana, a curved almost art nouveau building, now a villa, with a bell on its roof. As you drive down Las Galondrinas toward the sea several very large villas remain on the right-hand side (Las Golondrinas, Finca, Casa Maria, Villa Alhambra). On the left hand side villas have been replaced by exclusive complexes such as Las Mimosas de Puerto Banus. This area is now known as Las Mimosas.  

Reaching the front line are the ochre-toned walls of Malibu complex, where Casa Malibu stood until it was demolished to make way for the development. Casa Malibu belonged to Arthur Neville, who bought it from Ricardo Soriano. After his death Neville's widow sold it to Sean Connery who lived there from 1979 until it was sold to developers in 2002 to construct the present complex. The story goes that Sean Connery was unhappy about the large new developments on either side of his house and complained to the then-mayor Jesus Gil, "They are not going to see me in my underpants, I will sell it to build a bigger complex". Operation Goldfinger is the name of the Marbella Court No1 case investigating the aledged tax evasion and money laundering on the 5.5m € sale of this house via companies. The couple were both imputed in 2010 however the charges agains Sean were dropped in 2014. Sean Connery's wife Michelle has been summoned twice to testify in Spain. The Connery's retired to Lyford Cay in the Bahamas after selling the house and never returned to Spain. Sean Connery died in October 2020.

Frontline east of Malibu is an original vestige now called Bluebay Beach Club, what is left of the private beach club for the El Rodeo villa owners - the names of villas in tiles can still be seen on the doors of the storerooms. 

Babaloo Beach Club used to be based in the grounds of an old complex on this site that was demolished to make way for the new La Herradura and Guadalpin Banus complexes. Mistral Beach is a wooden chiringuito on the Playa Nueva Andalucia beach here.

Still in Los Rodeos, the land behind the El Rodeo petrol station includes unfinished developments and waste ground used as car parking in the summer. Of note are Laguna de Banus high-quality complex with marble entrance façade and El Embrujo Banus, with a formal entrance at front and underground car park entrance at back.

Frontline, but with a side access and surrounded and dominated by modern complexes, is Villa El Martinete, the original villa (rebuilt some time ago) that was owned by Antonio el Bailador. The swimming pool floor had a dolphin drawn by Jean Cocteau, which Antonio had preserved in mosaic tiles, and still survives. The villa can be rented.

Apartments for Sale in Los Rodeos