A Tale Of Two Houses

The antiquity of houses in the old towns of Mallorca hides any number of stories and reveals any number of secrets. Though some houses fall into a state of virtual ruin, the desire to preserve them is pursued with a passion for patrimony. Heritage and its maintenance has been elevated to a state akin to almost religious obsession. There is nothing at all wrong with such zeal, yet it can border on the homiletic in that a good heritage is preached, while sometimes practice does not match the sermon.

To get an impression of how, for differing reasons, the wish to preserve can fall some way short of what might be hoped, I give you a tale of two houses - Can Domenech in Alcúdia and Can Llobera in Pollensa.

Can Domenech dates back to the late Middle Ages. Much closer to the current day, in the 1950s it was bought by the Bryant Foundation which became the main focus of excavations at the Roman town of Pollentia. Towards the end of the last century the building was closed before being bought for the town in 2003, and most recently, restoration work commenced prior to the house becoming the headquarters of the consortium which now oversees Pollentia.

The restoration work, though, very nearly ground to a halt. In October, it was discovered that there were certain "irregularities" in the agreement drawn up between Alcúdia town hall, the regional government and the Council of Mallorca, each a party to footing the bill for the restoration. Up till the end of October, only one of the parties - the town hall - had actually handed any money over, which amounted to roughly a tenth of the restoration budget.

The problem lay with the fact that neither the former culture minister at the government nor his counterpart at the Council of Mallorca had the authority or competency to have signed off on the agreement. Work has since restarted, the town hall now having to pay more than had been originally planned.

Can Llobera in Pollensa is about as old as Can Domenech. The original building is reckoned to be from the start of the sixteenth century and it was in the possession of the Llobera family, whose most famous member was the poet Miquel Costa i Llobera, author of the "Pi de Formentor". It too was acquired for the town, Pollensa town hall handing over 1.5 million euros for the building in 2005.

And once the town hall bought Can Llobera, nothing happened. So much so that in September it was closed permanently because it was in such a poor state, part of the roof having collapsed.

A budget to allow restoration had been blocked earlier this year by opposition parties at the town hall who said they had insufficient time to study the proposals. Given the urgent need for work, they then abstained, thus allowing the town hall to allocate funds that had been intended for the building of a footbridge in Pollensa.

But funding still remains an issue, and a further issue is that, the building apart, what is actually inside it is in a state as bad as the building. Documents, including books and photos, all part of what the town hall paid for, are so far gone that they are beyond recovery.

The tales of the two houses aren't the same, but they both raise doubts as to abilities to pursue adequately the preservation of historic buildings. Can Domenech has highlighted, and certainly not for the first time, the bureaucratic bungling that can occur as a consequence of the three-headed monster of town hall, Council of Mallorca and government being allowed to get anywhere near a project. It is one that has left Alcúdia having to stretch a budget it doesn't really have.

Can Llobera is a tale of shocking neglect and profligacy. The town hall was prepared to spend 1.5 million euros on something which it appeared to have no interest in, beyond the publicity that it could have basked in at the time, and no plan as to maintenance. Arguably, it couldn't afford the building in 2005. Now, it most certainly wouldn't be able to.

Patrimony comes at a price, as both town halls have discovered. And for every Can Domenech and Can Llobera, how many other buildings are there across the island that need similar attention (or don't receive it) and similar funding? In a previous article (about the Son Real finca near Can Picafort), I concluded by questioning quite how serious different bodies are in preserving heritage. They are serious in putting preservation in motion, but that's the easy part. It's what comes after that they struggle with.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.