The
Serra de Tramuntana is a mountain range that runs along the northwestern edge
of the island of Majorca, off the coast of mainland Spain. Its towering peaks
and valleys are lined with ancient olive groves, lemon orchards, and
picturesque hilltop villages. The winding pathways that dot the rugged cliffs
plunge through pine trees and goat herds to meet the Mediterranean Sea.
اضافة اعلان
Nine
years ago, British fashion photographer Kate Bellm decided to make these
mountains her home, building a house just off the coastal road between the
towns of Deia and Soller and commuting to shoots for clients such as Gucci and
magazines such as British Vogue. In 2020, after she fell in love with the 18th
century finca next door, she and her husband, Mexican artist Edgar Lopez
Arellano, decided to turn their hands to hospitality.
Hotel
Corazon opened this month, after more than two years of work by the couple
alongside a team from Moredesign, a local architecture practice that’s a
mainstay of glossy magazines such as Architectural Digest.
“We
were covered in dust for months and months,” Bellm, 35, said as she made her
way from a cavernous room with a fireplace centerpiece — perfect for snuggle
puddles or sound baths, she declared — and into a verdant inner courtyard. The
hotel’s aesthetic, and particularly its bedrooms, feels heavily influenced by
the organic architecture movement of the 1970s, which espoused carving out a
harmonious balance between the synthetic and natural worlds.
All
of the rooms are individually designed but share curving pigmented lime walls
in soft shades of pink, sage, and ocher; custom-made furniture by local
artisans; shaggy carpets; and windows that open out onto gardens overflowing
with palm and jacaranda trees, honeysuckle, and cactuses (Arellano, 40, who
specializes in constructing zero-water cactus gardens, was busy potting several
varieties on the restaurant terrace nearby). Rooms range from 550 euros (about
$600) to 1,800 euros.
“When
I came here for the first time, I knew immediately what we needed to do and
what it had the capacity to give,” said Bellm, who wore stonewashed denim
flares and braids in her mane of hair. “A place this island is missing — a
supercool hotel that feels like the private home of a friend, with wellness at
its core and where you can’t break the rules because there are none. I wanted
to create a place that my people — fashion people — will totally love.”
This
month, supermodel Anja Rubik, who owns a house on Majorca, booked Hotel Corazon
to celebrate her 40th birthday. Alexandre de Betak, who produces runway shows,
and Mario Sorrenti, a fashion photographer, also own holiday houses close by.
But
don’t most of the fashion “it” crowd descend on Ibiza during the summer? Bellm
wrinkled her nose.
“I
feel like the big dogs come here,” she said. “Obviously, Ibiza is great to pop
in, but it’s just a different scene, shall we say. I feel like Majorca is very
unpretentious. You can just be in your pajamas all day, basically, especially
here at Corazon. This is a hotel for those who want to be barefoot, eat
straight from the trees, swim in the sea at night and get lost in the pines.”
Concierge
services will be via WhatsApp for guests wanting to know the best hidden
swimming coves and caves for summer, or hiking trails to waterfalls and meadows
full of wild mountain flowers during the cooler seasons. Adventure fuel can be
found in the hotel’s homemade date shakes or matcha smoothies, and restoration
in its yoga, sound healing, massage, and reiki sessions.
The
menu is designed to be “local, seasonal, medicinal and delicious,” Bellm said,
with most of the produce grown in Hotel Corazon’s newly planted organic farm
with 50 garden beds. There is also an artist residency program underway, with
painters, sculptors and ceramists chosen by Bellm to stay and create work at
the hotel, with a final exhibition in Corazon’s gallery at the end of their
time there.
“I
love collaborating with artists and to see how they make things. It gives you
inspirations to do things differently in your own world,” said Bellm, whose
main client is currently Zara and who added that she was shooting more and more
work at the hotel and on the island. “Plus, we can also help them tap into the
creative community that exists here in Majorca, who can fix their vintage
cameras or fire their pots. I want people to be able to thrive on this place
like I have.”
After
forging her professional reputation on super-attractive depictions of, in her
words, “rock ’n’ roll babes,” Bellm said her muses now were “the wild mothers
of Majorca who live near me and take their babies in the rocks and, like, swim
naked with starfish in their hands. They are so badass.” Bellm’s son, Sage, was
born on the island.
It
is little surprise that one of her favorite pastimes at the hotel is topless
gardening with neighbors.
“We
should totally also do a sound bath down here. It really floats you into
another realm,” she said excitedly as she walked through the farm and chomped
into a ripened peach. “The more I think about it, the more I just want to be
around the veggies and have them experience the gong too.”
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