Marbella can be anything to anyone. You can meet a rock star in the morning and a member of European royalty in the afternoon. There can’t be many places where two such unique personalities might intersect. To paraphrase Churchill, it is a kaleidoscope, wrapped in a mosaic, inside a melting pot. The result of successive waves of visitors who have left their marks over the years, Marbella is a social archaeological site where generations have lived lives of sun-gilded leisure. Today the popular image of Marbella may be of a sort of European Miami, but one need only scratch this glitzy surface to be taken back to the time when Marbella was a simpler place.

Photos Courtesy of Assouline