majorca spain
Majorca’s Growing Style Majorca may be notorious for its crowded beaches and high-rise resorts, but, as Bob Morris discovers, a new generation of style setters is finding inspiration in this Spanish island.
On a late-summer afternoon in the tiny village of Deià, a donkey brays and sheep bells clang. Nightingales dart through palms and yuccas and pines. The soft sunlight is reflected off the limestone houses, and violet morning glories cover everything, spilling from grape trellises and gates. On the terraced hillsides above town, olive trees grow under the craggy Tramuntana Mountains. This could be any ancient place, far from today, blissfully peaceful. Then, from one modest house, a song by Moby fills the air. A euphonious language can be heard from inside another house, and it most definitely isn’t Catalan. It’s English, the Queen’s English. A cell phone rings, competing with the singing birds. And on the narrow streets, there are soft footsteps, not of local schoolchildren or matrons, but of sleek blonde women in Hermès loafers. With its semitropical climate, Majorca, the largest island of the Balearics, has been drawing visitors from colder climes ever since George Sand wrote the dyspeptic Winter in Majorca about her 1839 sojourn here with Frédéric Chopin. “Majorca is the painter’s El Dorado,” she noted. In 1871, Archduke Ludwig Salvator abandoned the Austro-Hungarian Empire (where he was third in line to the throne) and lingered here for years, working to preserve ancient olive trees and create walking paths in the mountains. He was embraced by the locals, who appreciated his reverence for their remote world. Sixty years later, Robert Graves,
the English poet and novelist, settled in Deià, just inland from the northwest Majorca coast. “I found everything I wanted as a writer: sun, sea, mountains, spring-water, shady trees, no politics, and a few civilized luxuries such as electric light,” Graves wrote about his adopted home. “I wanted to go where town was still town; and country, country.” This year, the house where Graves lived will be opened to the public as a museum. “So now,” says Tomás Graves, the poet’s 51-year-old son, “my father’s legacy can be seen as something besides a tombstone.” Actually, Graves’s legacy can also be seen as the cause of the transformation of the quiet Deià of the early 20th century into today’s less quiet colony for privileged visitors. It was he who brought attention to Deià by inviting as his guests all manner of attention getters—Ava Gardner, Alec Guinness, and Peter Ustinov among them. And around the time he was entertaining his world-famous friends, Winston Churchill, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Charlie Chaplin were staying at the newly built Hotel Formentor. Just as the Arabs and Romans left their mark on the island in earlier times, so have the latter-day globe-trotters. Accessible by quick flight from most of Europe into a vast, modern airport, Majorca attracts more than 8 million visitors a year; one out of every four people on Majorca is a foreigner. Beaches have become as crowded with sunbathers as Coney Island. And in the summer, Tomás Graves can hardly find a moment
to himself. Graves, a musician and author of Bread and Oil—a book about the island’s staple cuisine and traditional culture—darts around on all kinds of social calls. One night he’ll be at La Fonda, the Deià bar frequented by hipster kids with pierced noses and dowagers with aristocratic ones, drinking with a tabla player who has just given an impromptu concert in a nearby barn. The following weekend he’ll be overseeing a celebration of his father’s poetry. The socializing is endless. “In August, it’s like being in St.Tropez,” says Jesse McKinley, a New York Times reporter whose family owns a cottage in Deià, near where Michael Douglas and Andrew Lloyd Webber have vacation houses. “And whenever someone
famous arrives, everyone always says it’s the beginning of the end, that the whole town is going to be ruined. Yet it remains one of the most beautiful places in the world.” Indeed, despite the new economy that exploded in the 1960’s, with cheap air travel and package trips for visitors of the palest hues, despite the high-rises that mar the landscape on the Bay of Palma, and despite the mosh pit like scenes at even the most isolated coves, Majorca has not lost its appeal. It isn’t a rave capital for kids. Nor is it the Hamptons of the Mediter-
Marina De Majorca
Majorca is a major international tourist destination, especially for those in love with the sea. To the northwest, The Serra de Tramuntana creates stunning cliffs and delightful rocky coves that are only accessible from the sea, so it is an interesting counterpoint to the sandy beaches of the rest of the coast, which can be enjoyed thanks to splendid Mediterranean climate. Temperatures rarely fall below 5 º C and in summer can reach 30 °.
Also, Tramuntana reduces the winds from the north. The Bay of Palma, the capital of The Balearic archipelago, hosts some of the most important yacht clubs of the island, while the bay of Portals Vells enjoys international renown. The entire coastline is a treasure, thanks to the heterogeneous landscape, which also delievers one of the most diverse and internationally prestigious offers, regarding nautical tourism. Constantly improving its structure and facilities,
Majorca has more than 42 marinas with all services and respect for the environment. The island has several marine reserves such as Mitjorn, the Illa del Toro and Cala Ratjada. Sports activities are popular throughout the year thanks to the races that take place in summer, such as the prestigious Majorca is a major international tourist destination, especially for those in love with the sea. To the northwest,
The Serra de Tramuntana creates stunning cliffs and delightful rocky coves that are only accessible from the sea, so it is an interesting counterpoint to the sandy beaches of the rest of the coast, which can be enjoyed thanks to splendid Mediterranean climate. Temperatures rarely fall below 5 º C and in summer can reach 30 °. Also, Tramuntana reduces the winds from the north. The Bay of Palma, the capital of The Balearic archipelago, hosts some of the most important yacht clubs
Majorca, the largest island in the Balearics, may make you think of beach resorts, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy both its coastline and the interior – particularly in autumn and winter when the crowds have gone and the temperature is more suitable for outdoor activities. One idea would be to spend a week exploring the Serra de Tramuntana on foot or by bike. This mountain range, running down the west of Majorca, has been made a World Heritage Site in recognition of the extraordinary techniques used to develop agriculture on its steep slopes over the centuries. Or you could visit a few of the wineries in the centre of the island, where local traditions are as strong as ever. Majorca, the largest island in the Balearics,
may make you think of beach resorts, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy both its coastline and the interior – particularly in autumn and winter when the crowds have gone and the temperature is more suitable for outdoor activities. One idea would be to spend a week exploring the Serra de Tramuntana on foot or by bike. This mountain range, running down the west of Majorca, has been made a World Heritage Site in recognition of the extraordinary techniques used to develop agriculture on its steep slopes over the centuries. Or you could visit a few of the wineries in the centre of the island, where local traditions are as strong as
Majorca, the largest island in the Balearics, may make you think of beach resorts, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy both its coastline and the interior – particularly in autumn and winter when the crowds have gone and the temperature is more suitable for outdoor activities. One idea would be to spend a week exploring the Serra de
Marine Life
Tramuntana on foot or by bike. This mountain range, running down the west of Majorca, has been made a World Heritage Site in recognition of the extraordinary techniques used to develop agriculture on its steep slopes over the centuries. Or you could visit a few of the wineries in the centre of the island, where local traditions are as strong as ever. down the
west of Majorca, has been made a World Heritage Site in recognition of the extraordinary techniques used to develop agriculture on its steep slopes over the centuries. Or you could visit a few of the wineries in the centre of the island, where local traditions are as strong as ever.