villa arbelaiz owed its name to tirso's title and the majorat ("mayorazgo") of his family. with the death of his father in 1865, tirso had inherited, among other properties located in guipúzcoa, the and its formidable private garden, in irun. this ancestral estate had remained in the hands of his family since the reign of philip ii of spain and hosted various historical figures (elisabeth of valois, henry iii of france, catherine de' medici, archduke albert of austria, anne of austria, charles iv of lorraine, catherine of braganza, philip v of spain and charles x of france, etc.). built in the sixteenth century by the powerful , it passed by marriage to the olazábal family after the wedding of tirso’s great-grandmother, the dowager , maria teresa de murguía y arbelaiz, xv lady ("señora") of murguía and vi lady ("señora") of arbelaiz, with domingo josé de olazábal y aranzate, in 1756.