Palacio de Marivent: A real garden

The few times we went to have dinner at the restaurant located opposite the palace, it was impossible not to notice that semi-circular gateway, the tiled roof and the name written in capitals embedded in the stone: MARIVENT. The image of a royal guard with his navy-blue uniform posted in front of the entrance, braving the humidity of the island’s summer heat under a sunshade, is another one of the images we Mallorcans conserve in our memory. 

When it was announced in May 2017 that the gardens of Marivent would open up to the public for the first time, many of us imagined that we would finally be able to bear witness to the wonders of a new Versailles... 

It was the year 1924 when the Mallorcan architect Guillem Forteza started building the palace of Marivent, commissioned by the engineer and collector Juan de Saridakis. Of Greek origin, albeit born in Egypt, Saridakis personally dealt with drawing the outline and boundaries of the palace located on the clifftop of Cala Fornaris, in Palma’s Cala Major neighbourhood. 

On his death in 1963, Saridakis’ widow donated the building, the land and the inheritance to the provincial government of the Balearic Islands, which in turn ceded it to the Spanish crown. Ever since 1973, without interruption, Marivent has been the official summer residence of the royal family and the setting for front covers of publications from all over the world.  

With the excitement of being on the point of experiencing a transcendental moment, a soon as I pass through the entrance door, I find the information panel that receives any visitor eager to discover the garden of Marivent. At the top there is a map of the place with the useful “You are here” on it and a list of the forty plant species, most of them indigenous, that inhabit the almost 9,000 square metres of land open to the public, some way from the majestic palace where, between the woods and the sea, the members of the royal household take refuge from the summer heat.  

But after walking around the garden for a few minutes and taking the obligatory photos, I must confess that I am left somewhat perplexed. Where is all the splendour of Versailles from my fanciful imagination? All I can see around me was a pretty garden, well-tended, yes, but at the end of the day, just another one of the splendid Mediterranean gardens one can contemplate in many places on this wonderful island.

So there I am, mulling this over, when I suddenly happen to come across the king in the maze of the garden. But not King Felipe, no. It is Pere Gomila, the real “king” of the Marivent garden, as he has been responsible for maintaining it for over fifteen years. Just a few days shy of retirement, contemplating what has been his workplace for so many years – not without nostalgia – seated on a bench, Pere tells me some anecdotes and things he has experienced here. For example, he remembers how the grandchildren of the emeritus king Juan Carlos used to enjoy cycling around from here to there. Or how the Princess of Asturias, Leonor, and her sister Princess Sofia, used to leave food out for cats in different corners of the garden. 

“What I would have liked is to be a farmer and work on the land,” Pere admits. He ended up as a city gardener because it was what there was most demand for at the time. 

Over these fifteen years, he has devoted himself to gaining land from the Mediterranean woodland that separates the palace from the garden, and which was formerly a vegetable garden. “It must have taken me more than twelve years to get the rosemary this bushy,” he says proudly as he stands next to a Japanese cheesewood which at almost one hundred, is the oldest plant in the garden. 

Thanks to Pere’s observations I learn to see more in this garden, which had seemed rather dull to me until now – most likely because of my elevated initial expectations –, and to enjoy the different spaces he has cared for so meticulously.     

Pere says that he has always got along famously with the members of the royal family, who have always trusted him and allowed him to be as creative as he wanted to. Indeed, he waxes lyrical about the people who for many years were the only ones truly able to enjoy his work. “The focus of people’s fascination is always up there,” he says, pointing to the only corner of the roof of the palace you can make out in the distance. And he complains that many visitors, drawn by the marketing of the place, forget that the greatest pleasure is nearly always found in that which is simple. “All I want in the future is for people to enjoy the garden,” Pere concludes. With no further pretensions.  

Barely six hundred metres from Marivent palace is the place where Joan Miró, one of the great icons of 20^th-century art, lived and worked for many years. When the gardens were opened up to the public, Fundació Miró Mallorca ceded a set of twelve cast bronze sculptures to the Government of the Balearic Islands, which can now be seen along this walk. 

Who knows whether the scent of rosemary and lavender from this little haven of peace - not a Versailles, but a little bit more our own now - used to reach the window of Miró’s studio.