The Tarnished Gold Of Cala D'Or

In the early 1930s the Ibizan painter, cartoonist and writer Josep Costa Ferrer handed over 13,000 pesetas and acquired three coves in Santanyí. These coves became Cala d'Or. Costa Ferrer, aka Don Pep, was one of the great pioneers of Mallorca's tourism. Together with others, such as the Belgians Van Crainest and Verburg and the architects Felipe Bellini and Arthur E. Middlehurst, he began the creation of what was arguably the most successful of the pre-Civil War resorts. The success owed much to Ibizan design and architecture, though a vision for Cala d'Or as a Mediterranean Hollywood did not materialise; the war put an end to that. Nevertheless, with the tourism boom Cala d'Or was well positioned to become a leading resort and one that was discernibly different, thanks to its alternative architectural flavour. The golden cove lived up to its name. It was precious, a gold standard for Mallorca.

The "positioning" of Cala d'Or was being discussed last week. Representatives of the Cala d'Or hotel association and the vice-president of the Mallorcan hoteliers federation, Inma de Benito, met with the mayor of Santanyí, Llorenç Galmés, to consider ways of improving its positioning, a broad term that one takes to refer to its image, its branding and so to its tourist profile and how and where the resort is marketed. The meeting discussed the launch of an improved and more attractive tourism website, participation in upcoming travel fairs, means of lengthening the season through diversification of the tourism offer and public-private co-operation. As such, therefore, it was a meeting that could have been discussing any of the island's resorts.

At the end of May 2012, there was a post on the "Caladorxlibre" blog*. It ended thus: "Im sure that the dream of Josep Costa Ferrer was not going to end in such a sad way." The article spoke of the "plight" of Cala d'Or, of a resort once the envy of the rest of Mallorca where now the "law of the strongest" applied, where, if there was no remedy, it would be a place "sunk in misery", abandoned by governments and politicians who think only of "bread for today" and not the "hunger of tomorrow" which might follow. Examples of degeneration were offered, and yet in one way this criticism was surprising. In November 2010, various buildings in Cala d'Or had been officially catalogued as being of special interest and so therefore needing protection. These were buildings representative of the era from 1933, when Don Pep bought the land, until the late 1960s, during which the essence of what Don Pep had envisaged had been maintained. But following the approval of an urban plan in 1967, things started to change. The consequence was the gradual loss of original buildings and of the architectural characteristics which had defined Cala d'Or.

Cataloguing and protecting certain buildings is, however, only one act of preservation. There are the very much wider issues of resort preservation, maintenance and improvement and of the nature of a resort and its "positioning". Belatedly, it would appear, the hoteliers and town hall have realised that they need to address these issues, the town hall's Partido Popular administration having previously been stung by opposition criticisms in 2013 by announcing a project of improvement which is ongoing.

Welcome though this embellishment is, the story of Cala d'Or is one that is sadly far from unique in Mallorca. The current regional government has laid the groundwork for resort improvement but it has its twin obsessions - those of Magalluf and Playa de Palma. Other resorts are for the most part merely lumped together in the anticipation of investment (mainly by the private sector) that will somehow lead to their transformation. But this is conceptually deficient, as it neglects a need for individual resort assessment and treatment. The resorts are not all the same, though the government gives the impression of believing that they are. Cala d'Or most certainly isn't the same. Or shouldn't be.

There needs to be a co-ordinated plan that appreciates the characteristics of resorts; what they have been and what they might be and so therefore what their "positioning" should be. Cala d'Or has clearly definable characteristics which need to be rediscovered and celebrated. The years of governmental indifference have made this difficult but not impossible. Likewise and as another example, Alcúdia, with its lakes and canals, needs to be subject to specific treatment for rediscovery and not be treated with the scandalous neglect of these attributes, as is currently the case.  

Are efforts by town halls and local hotel associations sufficient? No. They go some way in effecting improvements, but the resorts - all of them - need to be part of an island-wide plan dedicated to an appreciation of what marks them out. It is a plan, one fancies, that would be beyond the comprehension of the regional government.

* http://caladorxlibre.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/cala-dor-de-muy-pocos-quilates.html

Photo: Josep Costa Ferrer, Don Pep.

Tales Of The Llevant: The Belgians

Belgians might seem unlikely contributors to Mallorca's tourism history. It's not as if one hears a great deal about the importance of the Belgian market nowadays; in fact, you don't hear anything about it. But Belgians there most definitely were. The most celebrated was Gerard Blitz because of his original 1950 tented Club Med village on the beach of the French in Alcúdia. Club Med were to eventually transfer operations and create a permanent base on the island's south-east coast. The only Club Med in Mallorca lasted in Portopetro until 2001.

Portopetro is all but a continuation of its neighbour just to its north, Cala d'Or, the two resorts being part of a string of generally understated touristic inhabitation that includes the calas of Figuera, Santanyi and Llombards, separated by the Mondragó park. And it was in Cala d'Or that the Belgian connection was made and was to be crucial to the resort's early development.

But before the Belgians, there was an Ibizan. Josep Costa Ferrer, aka Picarol, aka Don Pep, a painter, cartoonist and publisher. At the start of the 1930s, he turned up in Ses Puntetes and bought fifteen "quarterades" from Catalina Adrover de Calonge (a quarterada is a measurement of land equivalent to slightly more than 0.7 of a hectare and so roughly 7,000 square metres). He paid 1,000 pesetas for each quarterada. He got a bargain and proceeded to establish a coastal urbanisation which he named after a cala from his native Ibiza - Cala d'Hort. The name was quickly corrupted. It became Cala d'Or. The orchard cove became the gold cove.

The story of Cala d'Or and of its development is one about which we have more first-hand knowledge than of any of the other inter-war coastal developments in Mallorca. It is a story not without its glamour on account of names of those who came and bought properties; Rudolf Valentino's one-time wife was just one. The richness of the story is due to the fact that it was well chronicled, and the person who chronicled it was Don Pep himself.

Yet, despite the various articles that Don Pep wrote, there are discrepancies and elements missing. For example, the price he paid for the land was also reported as having been 13,000 pesetas in total. It might not matter - it was still incredibly cheap even for those days - but it is an indication of how these stories and histories have become mangled. Then there is the story of the Belgians. The accepted wisdom is that a Sr. Van Crainest and a Medard Verburgh were the principal developers of Cala d'Or. It is a wisdom which is true, but what is never explained, and even Don Pep didn't explain, was their backstory.

Van Crainest is only ever referred to by his surname. I can find no reference to his Christian name, while the surname is almost certainly spelt incorrectly. Van Craeynest is the normal spelling. He was described (only ever described) as having been an important "bodeguero", a literal translation of which is grocer but which can mean other things, such as a keeper of a wine cellar. It is probably more accurate to say that his business was that in the French tradition of the epicerie, a grocery store for sure, but way more than that, including the sale of fine wines.

But why did Van Crainest come to Mallorca? The only explanation seems to be that Verburgh invited him, and so who was Verburgh, and what was he doing in Mallorca? He was a painter, but what drew him to Santanyi and to Don Pep? The answer, I suspect, lies on the other side of the island. Don Pep had originally intended to establish a sort of haven along the Formentor promontory, where land prices were vastly higher. In 1931, following a well-established pattern of artists staying in Puerto Pollensa, Verburgh took up residence in the Hotel Miramar, having come from the US to seek inspiration, as did so many other artists, from Mallorca's light and landscapes. Don Pep definitely knew the likes of Adan Diehl, who had founded the Hotel Formentor, and so would have known various artists. Verburgh was almost certainly one of them, and Verburgh was not just a painter, he was also the youngest son of a family that had a grocery business (or an epicerie). Van Crainest, it can probably be assumed, either had a business association with the Verburgh family or was indeed a member of the wider family.

There is nothing sinister in any of this, simply a bit of mystery. Much of Mallorca's tourism history has a distinct starting-point but little or nothing that explains what brought about the starting-point. This is the case with Cala d'Or. The Belgians arrived, started developing and the rest was history. There was rather more to it than that.


Index for July 2014

Alcúdia old well - 18 July 2014
Alcúdia Via Fora - 13 July 2014
Anti-bullfighting campaign - 27 July 2014
Bad image and reaction - 3 July 2014
Bauzá Assemblea de Docents rap video - 19 July 2014
Belgians in Cala d'Or - 31 July 2014
Cala Bona and 1920s' roots - 29 July 2014
Cala Ratjada and Joan March - 28 July 2014
Cala Ratjada and Manacor-Artà train - 23 July 2014
Citizen participation and opinion - 2 July 2014
Holiday lets - 4 July 2014, 24 July 2014
How war shaped Mallorca's tourism development - 20 July 2014
Jaume Matas prison - 14 July 2014
Magalluf fellatio video - 5 July 2014, 7 July 2014, 11 July 2014, 12 July 2014, 26 July 2014
Mallorca like Brazil - 10 July 2014
Mallorca's tourism: how it might have been - 20 July 2014, 21 July 2014, 22 July 2014
Mediterranean winds - 16 July 2014
Naturism and anarchy - 8 July 2014
Patrona and Pollensa Festival - 25 July 2014
Pedro Sánchez - 15 July 2014
Pickpocketing - 1 July 2014
Pregón of fiestas - 6 July 2014
Scandals and PR disasters - 9 July 2014
S'Illot tourism development - 30 July 2014
Tourism, summer 2014 - 17 July 2014
Winds - 16 July 2014

MALLORCA TODAY - Britons arrested following Cala d'Or attack

Three Britons, two of them female, aged between 18 and 20, were arrested by the Guardia Civil following an incident in the early hours of Sunday morning which arose when a local resident complained about noise coming from a bar in Cala d'Or. The man was attacked with bottles and broken glasses and suffered serious wounds to his face.