The historic Hotel Reina Cristina in Algercias © Michelle Chaplow
Hotel Reina Cristina
The proudest hotel in the city of Algeciras is the Hotel Reina Cristina. Kings and Queens have stayed there. So have statesmen such as Churchill and Roosevelt and film stars like Rock Hudson and Deborah Kerr.
Hotel Reina Cristina was opened in 1901 and named after Queen Maria Cristina mother of King Alfonso XIII. There are parts of an 8th-Century Mosque and a Moorish well in the grounds. The hotel is located close to Algeciras Port and the beach is a 10 drive minutes away.
The hotel building has small indoor pavilion heated pool a gym and a sauna plus a large outdoor summer only swimming pools. In the grounds are a hard surface tennis court and another repurposed as a 5-a-side football pitch. Free Wi-Fi is available in rooms and public areas. There is a TV room, Cards room, a central covered Patio with armchairs and Grand Piano and several meeting rooms.
All of the 181 guest rooms have a either a balcony or if ground floor a terrace. Rooms 401 to 420 are located away from the main building next to the outdoor swimming pool which is delightful in the summer but perhaps not in the winter.
Reina Cristina in Algercias
The hotel restaurant offers buffet meals for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. There are 2 bars; main bar and event room bar, plus a summer Pool
Details of the history of this hotel, and of the railway line to Ronda that was built at the same time, are told in the article "The train in Spain leaves the plain".
Reina Cristina's has 20 acres of subtropical grounds
Once, the Reina Cristina's 20 acres of subtropical grounds overlooked a sandy beach and sea beyond; today, that view is marred by a sports stadium and the cranes and cables of a working commercial port. But on a clear day, you can still gaze out on the Rock and Pillars of Hercules and imagine you are transported back to the first decade of 1900 when garrison officers and their wives and wealthy passengers disembarking from P&O cruise liners en route to India and the Far East would enjoy the hotel's regular Saturday evening dances in its specially sprung ballroom.
So proud was the hotel of Algeciras's temperate climate, that guests were promised a refund on their room rate for any days between May and September spoilt by rain. Then, they would relax in front of the tiled fireplace in the well-stocked library, its bound volumes protected by ornately carved bookcases and read from the light cast by the tentacles of huge green glass chandeliers - still all there today. A roomy lounge with magnificent carved oak doors would keep revellers at bay, so players of poker or rummy could concentrate. In World War II, it accommodated a host of international spies, who insisted on ensuite rooms with a sea view so they could observe movements round Gibraltar. Bathrooms were converted into darkrooms to process film.
The Terrace Steps
There are some inconspicuous stone steps, framed by a low decorative brick wall, leading down from the terrace next to the indoor pool. The steps that can be seen on the photo at the head of this page. Have your photo taken here, just as Federico García Lorca did in 1935. There is a copy of the photograph on the wall opposite the reception, framed with the inscription, 'Photograph donated to the Press Association of the Campo de Gibraltar by Ian Gibson, gifted by Gonzálo Menéndez Pidal, son of Ramón Menéndez Pidal, projectionist of La Barraca'. 1998, the centenary year of the birth of Federico García Lorca."
Lorca was visiting Algeciras at the time as part of a summer tour with La Barraca, his university theatre troupe that brought classical Spanish drama to rural and coastal areas of Spain. The person standing alongside Lorca is Rafael Rodríguez Rapún. Rapún was the secretary of La Barraca and is widely considered by biographers, most notably Lorca expert Ian Gibson, to have been the poet's last great love. The images show the two men in a relaxed and informal manner. As Lorca and Rapún generally kept their relationship discreet, these photographs are highly valued as some of the few visual testimonies of their bond.
The date of 1935 places the photo just one year before Lorca’s assassination in August 1936. Rapún himself died almost exactly one year after Lorca, on 18 August 1937, while fighting on the Republican front during the Spanish Civil War.
The 2026 award-winning film La Bola Negra (The Black Ball) includes scenes based on this photo and another taken on a garden path with people sitting in deck chairs. The film's directors, Los Javis, meticulously tracked down these archival images and used them to construct the aesthetic of the flashback scenes. These scenes recreate their famous summer 1935 stay at the Hotel Reina Cristina in Algeciras.
El éxito de 'La bola negra' recupera el verano de Lorca y Rapún en Algeciras
The King of Spain visited
Modern times dictate its use by conference delegates or members of the Algeciras Rotary Club. In the past, a frisson of delight would ripple through the guests when they spotted a famous face - actors, movie stars and even Royalty. King Alfonso of Spain and his English Queen Ena, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, were frequent visitors and it also hosted the politicians and delegates who attended the twelve nation Conference of Algeciras in 1906, called to decide on the partitioning of Morocco between France and Spain. This event, by the way, was reported on by a young English journalist called Winston Churchill.
His signature can be seen reproduces on large brass plaques adorning the reception area, along with those of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937), Edward Heath (1976), Lord and Lady Mountbatten (1956) and the present King and Queen of Spain, Juan Carlos and Sofia (1968). Film stars who have stayed there include Joseph Cotton (1933), Orson Welles (1937), Deborah Kerr (1945) and Rock Hudson (1977), not to mention countless others.
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Hotel Reina Cristina in Algeciras
Location
Calle Paseo de la Conferencia, s/n, 11207 Algeciras, Cádiz