Bernarda López de Alférez, of Moorish origin, is considered to be the founder of the chapel of Nuestra Señora de las Angustias in Nerja in 1720. When her husband died, Bernarda applied what he had left in his will and expanded and completed the work, endowing the chapel with an altarpiece, images and income for its upkeep. Nine years later, in 1729, she was condemned by the Inquisition for secretly practising the Islamic religion (known as taqiya التقية), and was banished from the city of Granada, perhaps spending her last years in Nerja with her son.