The Place
The road leading to Cases de Ca’s Garriguer (once known as the Hotel Vistamar) is lined with magnificent trees, reminiscent of a scene from a Visconti film; and to sustain your sense of making a grand entry, four romantic pillars dominate the entrance. The building, dating from the late 1900s, and once the summer residence of the Fortuny family, is not in fact very large by the standards of the time, but the 19 bedrooms are enough to give 20thC guests a sense of space. (Twelve junior suites have their own terraces.) They are decorated in the Mallorcan country style, with magical mahogany four-poster beds and local fabrics coming together effectively. The garden is a dream, with narrow paths leading down to shady romantic plateaux, which ask you to stop and read, or contemplate; or to admire the impressive view over Valldemosa’s pretty harbour a half-hour walk. Valldemosa is associated with four famous people: the only Mallorcan saint, St Catalina Tomas; Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria; Frederic Chopin and George Sand. The last two spent the winter of 1838-9 in the monastery at Valldemosa, having found no other lodging on account of Chopin’s tuberculosis.