Miquel Costa i Llobera
Poet, 1854 to 1922
Pollença's great poet. His family owned the Formentor peninsula, and his poem about its pine became a symbol of Mallorca.
A guided experience from the Hotel Formentor · Fundació Dionís Bennàssar
A three-hour journey across the bay to Pollença and back, telling how this corner of Mallorca became one of the birthplaces of modern travel, through the life of the local painter who saw its light like no one else.
For centuries life on this coast barely changed. Then, in the space of a few years, painters arrived for the light, a hotel was built for the people who followed them, and the images they made carried the bay to the rest of the world. The Hotel Formentor stands at the centre of that story.
The tour tells it backwards, from the hotel to its causes: a fortress turned artists' retreat, a famous painter who chose a fisherman's hut over Paris, his pupil who made Pollença his home, and the young local man that pupil discovered. Dionís Bennàssar was born into a farming family that had lived the same way for generations, and lived through everything that followed. His life is the bridge between the old world and the new.
It ends where it begins, among the Formentor pines, seeing them as the painters did.
By boat across the bay, on foot through Port de Pollença and the old town, and by road back to Formentor.
Eleven stops in four parts. Clock times run from departure.
Where modern travel arrived on this coast.
The peninsula as it was a century and a half ago: pines, a rugged cove and the poem Pollença's great poet wrote about a single tree. Then the arrival of Adán Diehl, and the hotel that opened here on 24 August 1929, reachable only by sea.
Across the bay to where it began.
A quiet crossing along a coastline that has barely changed since the painters first saw it. No commentary: time simply to look.
The 17th-century fort an Argentine painter turned into an artists' retreat in 1919, a decade before the hotel. The first version of the Formentor dream.
Paintings and early photographs of the waterfront, held up against the view as the boat comes into the port.
On foot along the promenade that bears Anglada Camarasa's name. The painter of Paris nightlife who chose a fisherman's hut on this beach, the terraces where the colony met, and how a quiet port became a destination.
Into the town, and into the twentieth century.
On the drive up, the story of Anglada's favourite pupil: the Argentine painter who sent Diehl to Formentor and then made Pollença his home.
The farming town the painters found, seen through Cittadini's paintings of its streets, and the young local artist he took under his wing: Dionís Bennàssar, farm boy, wounded soldier and painter.
The Civil War in the streets where it happened. Along the old high street, past the poet's house, to the back street where Dionís made his home.
The painter's house, and back to the pines.
The painter's own house, now the Fundació. His paintings, his journals and the rest of his story, with tea and time to look.
Unscripted. Time to talk, ask questions and let the morning settle.
Back where the day began. Among the Formentor pines, a short guided exercise in looking, the way the painters taught themselves to see this place.
The tour follows eight lives that crossed on this bay. Cittadini is the thread that ties them together.
Poet, 1854 to 1922
Pollença's great poet. His family owned the Formentor peninsula, and his poem about its pine became a symbol of Mallorca.
Writer and patron, 1891 to 1953
Born in Buenos Aires. Bought the peninsula in 1928 and opened the Hotel Formentor in 1929.
Painter
Bought La Fortalesa in 1919 and made it a retreat for artists and friends.
Hotelier
A fisherman's son back from Argentina, whose small inn became the Hotel Miramar.
Painter, 1871 to 1959
Celebrated in Paris around 1900. Settled on the bay in 1914 and drew a colony after him.
Painter, 1886 to 1960
Anglada's favourite pupil. Sent Diehl to Formentor and became a man of Pollença.
Pianist
Played with the Pollença Jazz Band, one of the bands at the Hotel Formentor.
Painter, 1904 to 1967
Born on a farm outside Pollença. The local who stayed, and painted the island's light like no one before him.
The guide carries a large portable tablet. At chosen points he holds up the painting or period photograph made at that very spot, so guests see for themselves what the painters saw and how it has changed.
The images come from the Fundació's collection and archive, alongside works by the painters of the Pollença colony and early photographs of the bay and the town.
The story draws on Dionís Bennàssar's own journals and manuscripts, held by the Fundació, and on the family's knowledge of his life.
A poet, a hotel founder, painters from Paris and Buenos Aires, a jazz pianist and a farm boy from Pollença. Each stop adds a thread, and the threads meet by the end.
The tour closes with a short guided looking exercise among the pines: the experience guests take home.
Guided small-group tour, three hours, starting and ending at the Hotel Formentor.
From the hotel jetty across the bay to Port de Pollença, past La Fortalesa.
Port de Pollença up to Pollença, and the return to the hotel.
The Pine Walk in Port de Pollença and Pollença's old town. Gentle slopes and some steps.
Thirty minutes at the Fundació Dionís Bennàssar, the painter's own home, with tea.
When the tramuntana stops the boat, the tour runs by road in the same order.
A private foundation and house museum in the painter's home on Carrer de la Roca, in the centre of Pollença. It holds the largest collection of Dionís Bennàssar's paintings, together with his journals, manuscripts and personal archive, and is run by his family. The story, research and guide training for this tour come from the Fundació.