Cala d’Or used to be quite a prestigious holiday resort during the Fifties and Sixties when celebrities like Frank Sinatra or Farah Diba were amongst its visitors. Today the place has a bit of a tacky feel to it, I am afraid, not quite as bad as Magaluf or Arenal, but far from the elegance that once was the aspiration behind Cala d’Or.

In 1933, José Costa Ferrer (Don Pep) came to Mallorca by boat from Ibiza. He anchored in Mallorca’s Southeast in an uninhabited cove by the name of Cala Llonga. He thought he had found paradise and soon went about to find the owner of this neglected territory. Nothing but garriga (garrigue) and low shrubs grew here and only wild goats roamed this dry and rocky land. Don Pep is said to have bought what is now known as the Cala d’Or area for the stately sum of 1,000 Pesetes. Supposedly, he was an architect by trade and thus immediately began to design a small village based on the Ibiza-style of whitewashed houses with a flat roof, no more than three storeys high. He certainly was a man with a vision.

Nature had already provided the design for the settlement, with the area’s six beaches: Cala Gran, Cala d’Or, Cala Egos, Cala Es Forti, Cala Serena and Cala Esmeralda. There is a seventh inlet, today the largest one, which now houses the Marina de Cala Llonga (the Cala d’Or marina); it is the bay where Don Pep originally had gone ashore.

Of Cala d’Or’s beaches, Cala Gran is the largest and nicest one, extending to a width of 40 m and a depth of 100 m. After the end of September, once tourists have retreated to their northern home bases, a visit can be recommended and the beauty of its natural setting can be appreciated, unblemished by the crowds.

The photo was taken in Cala d’Or, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: July 19th, 2009. The time was 18:05:09.