After Gertrude Stein uttered her now famous words to Robert Graves: “Majorca is a paradise – if you can stand it,” the British poet moved to the island’s small village of Deià in 1929. “I found everything I wanted as a background to my work as a writer,” Graves wrote: “Sun, sea, mountains, spring water, shady trees, no politics, and a few civilized luxuries such as electric light and a bus service to Palma.” He wasn’t the only one who fell under Mallorca’s spell; other artists and writers, such as Joan Miró and Anaïs Nin, have also called Mallorca their home. As mass tourism picked up in the 1950s and beach resorts began to develop in busier parts of the island, Mallorca became a popular tourist destination, but surprisingly—if improbably—local businesses didn’t change to accommodate them.
Mallorca’s allure isn’t: the hole-in-the-wall bars, the centuries-old weavers, ceramicists, and glass blowers, and the wild coves, or , only reachable by sea or hikes. Today, the Mallorca of the 1920s and ‘30s has returned in a sense, with creative expats from all over the world finding contentment in the slower pace of the Balearic’s largest island, and Spaniards returning to their hometown after several years in bigger cities to find Mallorca just as inspiring as when they left it. “I have been living in Mallorca over 30 years now, and what was a quiet, very traditional island has turned into a very lively cosmopolitan hub,” says artist Tatiana Sarasa, “where people from all over the world mix with locals and fill the cities and landscape with colors and revolving energy.” This young crop of creatives is not imposing itself on Mallorca, but rather immersing itself within the communities that already exist there, finding inspiration through age-old crafts and traditions against the backdrop of an ever-inspiring natural landscape, all with a deep-rooted commitment to preservation. We asked eight local creatives to share their favorite hidden gems on the island.
