La Fructuosa, maintaining its long tradition as a guest house, welcomes you and wishes you an enjoyable stay. Anything you may need while you are here, please don’t hesitate in contacting us and we will do what we can to be of assistance
From the beginning of 20th century this building (now over 150 years old) was a popular guest house called “La Española” but known by everyone as Fortuoza´s Inn (Andaluz pronunciation of the owner’s name Fructuosa). It was a guest house with four small bedrooms, plus one for the owners, a dining room and a small kitchen. In the basement was a stable, a small lavatory and a five metre wine press, there was also equipment to make wine and liquors, including space for four large barrels and a distillery.
The influence of Fortuoza’s name was such that when her daughter inherited the business everyone still called it by her mother’s name, even though the daughter was called Doña Concha. She ran the business until it closed in the 50’s. In Fortuoza´s Inn many newlyweds spent their first night together, and it was also where judges, notaries and other professional people lodged when the legal court and regional registry were in Gaucîn.
When we bought the house in February 1997 it had been abandoned for more than 15 years and as a result was in a sorry state, with part of the roof collapsed and terrible damp problems. But it still had a lot of its original charm, and even some of the old furniture from its days as a guest house. The people of Gaucîn had always referred to the house by the name Fortuoza which is why, from the very beginning; we decided to do the same.
We began the restoration in January 1998 and from the outset we were clear on two points. Firstly to maintain as much as possible of the original elements of the house: in other words we didn’t destroy anything that could be saved: e.g. the windows and shutters from the original house have now been used as cupboard doors in the bedrooms. The old school books we found have been put in the library in the sitting room; we managed to re-use the original clay floor tiles and most of the beams are original, etc.
Secondly, everything we had to build (i.e. the top two floors) was built in a style sympathetic to the old houses of Gaucîn and in the character of  La Fortuoza: e.g. we used original style terracotta floor tiles and old fashioned electric switches with plaited cotton cabling; also when we painted inside we used typical colours from the region: albero (a kind of yellow), almagra (red ochre), greens and blues, etc. We found an interesting charcoal drawing of some pomegranates on one of the walls of the old distillery, (which is now the kitchen). We liked the drawing so much we now use it as our logo for the Fructuosa.
In the sitting room of the hotel you will find a photograph album which records the history of the house from the time of purchase until now, with all the restoration and transformation that has taken place. Another album features press releases of the hotel and we have a visitor’s book for our guests to sign.
All the pictures in the hotel are part of our own collection and many of these are from painting and photography exhibitions we hold regularly in the restaurant. Of particular interest is the collection of sketches of Gaucîn and Gibraltar by romantic artists and travellers from 19th century.