F
ormentor is a world unto itself—a peninsula of rocks pierced by coves with turquoise waters, planted with forests stretching into the north of the island of Mallorca. For a long time, Formentor was home only to the pine trees surrounding the sea. Then came poetry, painting, literature, luxury, peace, and sensual delight, which took up residence there at the beginning of the last century. One had to be a little mad, or a poet, to imagine, on this patch of wild land, a hotel of the most improbable luxury.
It is reached by a winding and majestic road that offers unforgettable viewpoints through a landscape of mountains, coves, and forests. A road that was carved through the rock to reach the Hotel Formentor by land. But when the hotel opened its doors in 1929, the road did not yet exist—guests arrived by boat. The first two guests, two Englishwomen, got seasick; Adan Diehl, the owner of the place, offered them the week for free…
Poet, aesthete, patron of the arts, terribly charming, incredibly visionary—Adan Diehl was all of that and much more, but he was by no means a businessman. Born in Argentina at the end of the 19th century into a privileged and intellectual environment, Adan traveled the world in search of the most beautiful landscapes and spent long periods in Paris. During the Roaring Twenties, he led a bohemian life surrounded by Latin American poets, writers, and painters. They danced the tango until dawn, frequented cabarets, attended exhibition openings, and took painting lessons with Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa, whose post-impressionist canvases sold very well. The master, twenty years older than Diehl, was fascinated by Pollença and Formentor, where he had taken refuge during the First World War, and painted the landscapes of the north of the island again and again. Adan Diehl fell under the spell of a canvas depicting Formentor after the storm.
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