The exuberant gardens of Alfabia are drenched in water and steeped in history. Here, among the baroque fountains and shaded glades, you’ll even find reminders of Mallorca’s Moorish past.
To stroll the shaded paths of the gorgeous gardens of Alfàbia is to walk not just through garden history but the history of Mallorca itself. For here the Arabs and Berbers, their Christian conquerors, the 18th-century nobility and romantic 19th-century sensibilities have all left their imprint.
Alfàbia is a word derived from Arabic meaning water cistern or jug. Everywhere you go in the gardens you are accompanied by water: it rushes down channels and through sluices, drenches and douses the sun-baked stones, seeps and oozes out over moss, and dribbles and splashes into languid pools shrouded with exotic trees, ferns, tall palms and giant bamboos.
Tradition has it that Alfabia was originally the estate of Benahabet, a Moorish leader who was allowed to retain his property after the Reconquista. Even if there is any truth to this tale, the Moor didn’t hold onto his new home for long because there are records of the conquering Christian king, Jaume I, granting Alfabia to the Conde de Rosellón. Through alliances over the centuries the house passed into the hands of the Villalonga and Zaforteza familes who, over the course of the 15th-19th centuries, changed and adapted the estate to the prevailing tastes of the times.
Cristina Zaforteza, managing director and co-owner of Alfabia, played here as a child, in what she calls “a historic home, an enchanted garden”.
“These estates, or possesiós are where the families of Palma came in summer. But they wouldn’t come in winter. And these estates were a source of wealth for these families and provided work and a place to live for many people. They provided cereals, carob, oil and other agricultural products, which were then sold. Unlike now, when these estates actually cost money to run, back then they were akin to the industries of the Industrial Revolution or the tourist hotels of today.”
As the economy shifted to mass tourism, Cristina’s family decided to open the house to the public in the 1970s and, more recently, host events, such as weddings, fashion and film shoots. “It’s the only way to maintain the estate, and we have to balance all these activities, so that the visitor who comes in the morning gets to experience the true essence of Mallorca, gets to feel that this is a true family home. It’s not a set, there’s nothing fake.”
And there’s plenty to admire. Stepping over the threshold and looking up, one can admire the colorful coffered ceiling in pine and holm-oak wood, with inlays forming beautiful arabesques. The frieze reads “Allah is great. Allah is the power. There is no God but Allah.” The Mudéjar style, inspired by the art and patterns of Islamic art, was popular throughout Spain in the territories recently conquered from the Moors and this is most likely the work of Christian craftsmen sometime between the 12th and 14th century.
A broad stairway is flanked by lions after those of Antonio Canova, originally carved for the tomb of Pope Clement XII. At the top is an elegant baroque fountain, above which is a Renaissance crest depicting Hercules slaying the Nemean lion. There are baroque windows on either side: through the window on the left, you’ll see plump doves and turkeys; while beyond the window on your right are the still waters of a covered cistern. It is a dim, damp, tomb-like space where ferns sprout from the walls and ceiling and through which you can see the lush, thick green foliage of the gardens on the other side.
The water stored here is distributed by a network of aqueducts throughout the grounds, keeping the estate exuberant and green even in the driest stretch of summer. Six different species of palm grow here. There’s also an abundance of sun-loving but thirsty winter-flowering laurustinus, myrtle, figs, almonds, persimmons, oranges, lemons, walnuts, pomegranates, pistachios, and strawberry trees.
For centuries, visitors have been captivated by the gardens. In 1809, British traveler Sir John Carr, in Mallorca during the Napoleonic Wars, wrote: “Behind the house were orchards of mulberry and almond trees, gardens abounding with the finest vegetables, fruits, oranges and citron-groves, a long and exquisite trelliage of the most luscious vines, with numerous jet d’eau playing on each side between every arch, whilst the air was perfumed with the fragrance of lavender and thyme growing wild, the whole secured on all sides by lofty and picturesque mountains covered nearly to their craggy summits with olives.”
The jets of water he mentioned continue to squirt and spatter today. A long 18th-century pergola of 72 columns runs down a slope. Between the columns are urns which, at the touch of a button, sputter into life sending over a hundred jets of water into the air, crisscrossing and soaking the pebbled path, spraying and, one hopes, refreshing the unsuspecting visitor.
Wandering back towards the house the visitor enters a more formal parterre of clipped Myrtus communis filled with a large selection of both herbaceous and annual flowering plants. In spring, there’s a beautiful display of lavender Wisteria sinensis. This is a fascinating section of the garden: it has something with scent and in flower all year round to enchant the visitor.
Walking further along one comes to the more romantic and wilder section of the garden, a cool, green retreat from the sun. This shady garden was laid out around a pond in the 19th century and since then gnarled and tangled vines have woven their way into every corner. Standing on the verandah of the house and staring into the dense garden one feels like a colonial governor posted to the swampy tropics.
This garden and terraced area was ready just in time for the visit of Queen Isabel II in 1860. Antonio Flores, who accompanied the queen in order to chronicle her visit, wrote:
“The approach to the Alfàbia estate is exquisite, but the exit on the other side is more marvellous still. Looking out from the windowed gallery which extends around the garden you are immediately absorbed and overwhelmed by the most varied and beautiful panorama the human mind can imagine. It is as if nature and art are the work of the same hand. One cannot tell where the garden ends and where the mountain begins as they both seem to be one and the same”.
The gardens are open every day between February 15 and October 31, from 09.30 to 18.30, with last entry at 17.30. Tickets are 9 euros, or 5 euros for residents. Children under 10: free.
