"The majority of Teix’ peaks are rocky and barren of any trees though profusely covered by “càrritx” (rope grass) which is sold in Sóller. The walls are decorated with extensive blankets of ivy which add a note of color and freshness. Box wood (Buxus baleárica) and yews (Taxus baccata) have also found their place in these heights.
The path that descends to the port no longer passes by the separating wall mentioned above. Rather, it moves off more to the right where the projected new access has been opened with shot holes up to the very shore.
The valley, with steep mountainous rocks in the background, forms a closed sinkhole crossed by Torrent de Valldemossa which is called Torrent des Lli here. And, we see the green Salt de Son Olesa to the left of the valley, it’s followed by some steep outcroppings at whose feet some vigorous fig trees grow. A bit farther on from the latter and to the right, a partially terraced promontory sticks out. The winding path makes its way now through rolling lands, here and there dotted with pine trees, and later bordered by large red rocks populated with mica. The path is known by the name of Camí dels Horts. The view this valley offers is certainly beautiful, surrounded by tall rocky walls from Pla del Rei to Son Olesa and its heavily worked terraces on the lower part, merry springs everywhere, and black poplars, fig trees and reeds as decoration in back, while some grow farther down and others daring to grow on the slopes.
There are a total of nine little houses in the port. The biggest is mine, built by Mr. Antoni Moragues so I could have a dwelling near the sea in case of recreational or fishing trips. Not far is a plowed field. The other eight houses belong to fishermen.
Before providing details about Miramar, I’ll briefly discuss its history.
Towards the end of 1276, Jaume II founded a school to teach Oriental languages, in particular Arabic, in the place already known as Miramar. He did so on the recommendation of his seneschal, Ramón Llull. Under the latter’s direction, 12 monks lived there and were taught the arts and means to be able to dedicate themselves to convert the infidels.
The house at Miramar is today, as indicated, a fourth of what it originally was, with an inner patio and arched gallery all around. All that has disappeared, and I was only able to find four columns from the ancient cloister: one in the stable, another in the kitchen as a support post and the other two underground. Today they support the trellis of a pergola in the back portal of the house leading to the garden. They are four attached columns made of stone from Santanyí, with simple channeled capitals and a broader pedestal. On the southern corner of the house we can see the worn foundation walls of the old building both above and below ground at parts.
The current house is a simple construction with a pitched roof, coarse grout and square tower in the northern corner, with an upper terrace providing a broad panoramic view of the entire surroundings. On the ground floor are two large halls with tiled walls. One of these, the former ballroom, includes an old “pica” (sink) used to collect water from the fountain.
The only thing left of the old church is the side chapel dedicated to Christ, while the still existing one on the opposite side was dedicated to Mare de Déu del Bon Port. A small portico with terrace and gate was built in front, crowned by a bell. This old bell bears the inscription: “Benedictus sit locus iste”. The chapel’s Gothic transept like the altar and decoration are new. Only the Trinity altar is old, seemingly dating from the 15th century. On both sides are paintings by Steinle depicting two local saints, the founder, Ramón Llull, and the Blessed Catalina Tomàs.
The entire Miramar estate, where forests and tilled land intermix without apparent continuity, seems crisscrossed by a multitude of paths, transforming it into a type of natural park. Tree spurge (Euphorbia dendroides), mastics and wild olive trees crown the heights and border the foothills to Torre del Moro, a massive slope-shaped base and powerful defensive cornice protecting a raised garden, completely overtaken in an anarchically beautiful way by all types of trees and wild bushes, from Taxus baccata and Hacer opalus on the tallest peaks to the tamarisk and “sivina” on the lower shores of the marshes, intermixed with the gold of the “estepa joana” (Hypericum balearicum) shrub and the dark green of the box wood (Buxus baleárica), backstitched with clashing branches attached to the rocks of the hill and broken by the explosive coloring of the rockroses.
Through a lush pine grove and amongst walls covered in rose bushes, the path which goes from Torre del Moro to Saint Ramón Llull chapel first winds through an imposing grove of Holm oaks. The chapel’s foundation stone was placed on January 21st, 1877, on occasion of the sixth century of Miramar’s existence. The stone was brought from Bejaia, whose soil the great philosopher and founder of Miramar’s blood watered through his martyrdom. Another stone was added from San Francisco in memory of the pious Junípero Serra, founder of the great metropolis on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. It is a simple Romanesque circle with a path all around the perimeter and an iron handrail from which there is a complete and enchanting panoramic view of the entire area.
From the chapel, paths open up for walkers in all four cardinal points.
We stop for a while at the Des Miradors lookout point, so-called because you can see some of Miramar’s most noteworthy contours.
In the middle of the valley, the path turns towards the sea, and we pass by another lookout point called Pi Sec (dry pine), a small tower with a cornice up high. From there the path continues curving downwards. One part then climbs towards Estaca through a beautiful pine and Holm oak forest bordered here and there by palm trees. The other part runs along the coast towards the Na Foradada peninsula.
A path opened up in part with shot holes in the middle of a rocky wall quickly climbs up via steps towards a small tower called Es Mirador Nou on the top of a very lush hill.
A path opening up through the lush foliage connects this lookout point with the main path towards the vineyardx, Camí de Sa Marina, and which from the road descends to Estaca in numerous curves along the slopes of a very steep and lush valley. From here we come to a totally different world because, due to the great difference in height, the environment is much warmer and the shrubs are much more exuberant. Large mastics and Mediterranean buckthorns occupy an extensive surface of land, intermixing with old pines with tortured trunks and dense groves of Holm oaks, while the grapevines, producing exquisite malmsy and muscatel grape varieties, present their tidy rows in the numerous flattened terraces on the slopes.
The building was constructed by me in 1878 in the Sicilian style. It has a large front terrace with a trellis supported on white cylindrical pillars and two more on the first floor. All the rooms have a domed ceiling made of sandstone. The latter was brought first by boat to Es Guix and then by mule to the construction site. The bodega or “celler” is underground, and you reach it via a broad staircase from the center of the hallway. It is flanked on either side by two cisterns, one used to gather potable water for consumption, and the other for other purposes. Its location is unique: vineyards everywhere, their refreshing and uniform green interrupted here and there by dark interspersed carob trees; the house up high, dominated by a grove of palm trees; to the east, Na Foradada, resembling a natural Sphinx; to the west, S’Aliga point; to the south, the steep forest-covered slopes and the Ses Pites lookout point like an eagle’s nest; and, to the north, the limitless sea.
If we look for the forest path from Miramar’s fountain, we soon come to a shaded valley divided into terraces with walls covered in ivy and ground populated by fruit trees. There are three small houses, and, not far from some gigantic walnut trees, the clean waters, the best in the area, bubble up from the Beat Ramon spring, the water serving to fill two “safareigs” (basins). A bit higher up, a winding path leads to the Cova del Beat Ramon cave, a small opening in the rocks along some ancient pines in which there is a relief of the saint placing his work at the feet of the Virgin Mary and Child and the date, 1525. According to old tradition, this is where the saint liked to retire to write and pray. A wooden cross up high makes the spot visible from a distance.
The hermitage rises up in a place populated by cypress trees. The entrance consists of a rectangular door with a corbel crowned by a cross on a conical base, alongside two iron ones with triangular pedestals. With the pealing of a bell attached to a cord leading to a wooden handle, a hushed voice from inside soon answers: “Ave María puríssima”. “Sens pecat concebuda” (conceived without sin) is the answer that will open the door. The entrance seems decorated with all types of ceramics and paintings with fantastic images of hell, the devil, Saint Anthony and Father Mir. The latter’s portrait represents him as an old man, with grey beard and his monk’s habit, kept previously in the Miramar church. From here, some steps lead to an inner patio with carefully paved floor. On the left is a well providing excellent water and on which we see the inscription “Jesús María” and the date, 1713. The church is attached to the patio, with a square door, rosette, and simple whitewashed bell tower, the grooves between blocks decorated with pebbles. The modest interior has a double ceiling and three ancient altars. The main one is dedicated to the Holy Trinity and has a bad imitation of the painting still at Miramar and a statue of Mary’s Conception and another two on both sides.
To the left of the main entrance is the old hermitage with two beds, today used as an overnight hostelry. A bit farther, to the right, is an old chapel, a stable, and the workshops where the hermits carry out their various manual trades.
Visiting the tallest summit in Miramar, Talaia Vella, is worth the trouble. There’s a path which, near Penyal Blanc, climbs over height after height behind the old hermitage. But today it is not usable except by the most agile shepherds. By contrast, we can take a good horseshoe-shaped path directly from Son Moragues. As it ascends, the panoramic beauty of the setting increases, with views of the emerald green Valldemossa Valley and the broad plain.
Of Talaia Vella’s two peaks, the tallest one is on the left, a geodesic marker indicating 868.56 m above sea level.
Son Marroig or Son Mas Roig de la Foradada as it appears in old documents is the best situated house on Mallorca. Na Foradada, which we thought was directly below Miramar, rises up in all its wild beauty at our feet. A path with two lanes leads from the road to Son Marroig house, a fairly old building as attested by the ogee arches in the entrance hall, a Renaissance window in the small patio and the powerful rectangular tower. According to tradition, the last woman from Deià kidnapped by the Moors lived here. The surroundings and a bit of fantasy make it easy to imagine the poor victim in chains.
Without doubt, the most beautiful thing about Son Marroig is its lookout point, in which an elegant, white Carrera marble shrine offers excellent views over the undulating landscapes of Miramar, the house itself, the Son Gallard inn, and the valley of Estret to the heights of Son Rullan and the neighboring hills of Castellàs with its reddish cliffs. With complete prodigy, we see the infinitely blue sea, limited to the west by Point s’Àliga and the gapped profile of Dragonera over which Na Foradada seems to reign like lord and master.
We descend from the lookout point amongst rocks decorated with agaves and prickly pears under the shade of old carob and olive trees, reaching the Na Foradada lookout point. The latter is a natural extension along the edge of the rocky mount, with carefully made benches around a solid table surrounding the tortured trunk of an old olive tree. We could say the fascinating Foradada is even more beautiful as seen from here in its totality.
Amongst the steep walls of a wild ravine out of whose crevices wild olive trees and mastics grow along with wood spurge, the path descends to Na Foradada.
The best excursion to make from Son Marroig is to nearby Castellàs, to which a good horseshoe-shaped path takes you. The hill’s base is dressed with olive trees, carob trees and one or another Aleppo pine, while its summit is topped by Holm oaks and maritime pines. The plain is home to young grafted olive trees. We find ourselves in one of the island’s privileged hillocks, with a grand panoramic view of the entire northern coast of Dragonera to Sóller’s Torre Picada and, at its feet, the cheerful inlet of Miramar and the entire valley of Deià. The entire view represents an image we cannot imagine, an image to which the limitless sea serves as noble background. A small cave called Sa Cova des Morts (cave of the dead) is found in the reddish crags on the western part."
Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria. Las Baleares por la palabra y el grabado. Majorca: The island. Ed. Sa Nostra, Caja de Baleares. Palma de Mallorca. 1982.
Programación: torresmarques.com :: Diseño: Digitalpoint