Deia

 

With its ancient stone buildings scattered round the village church, Deiá has a humble, peasant-like appearance. Aerial photographs of the village and neighbouring Llucalcari, however, reveal a surprising amount of private swimming pools, suggesting that not all the locals are not quite so humble as one might suppose.

Deiá is situated in the north-west of the island at 28 kilometres/17.5 miles from Palma.

Though one of Mallorca's smallest municipalities - only 15 square kilometres and 677 inhabitants - Deiá is traditionally one of the best known and best loved villages on the island. Spectacularly situated among rugged mountains, Deiá village itself is at an altitude of some 220 metres, while its beach and the sea are only a short distance away. At 1064 metres, the municipality's highest mountain - Puig des Teix - is almost exactly the same height as Wales. Mount Snowdon, the highest peak in England and Wales.

Ask any inhabitant to give the name of Deiá´s most illustrious resident ever, and he/she will almost certainly answer "Archduke Luis Salvador", an Austrian aristocrat who moved to Majorca in the 18th century. The Archduke was responsible for erecting many of the impressive buildings round Deiá.

Deia was made famous by the English poet Robert Graves, is and has been the village of the artists. You'll quickly understand why, once you see its old houses of redish stone, gracefully spread around its church, in the midst of olive and cypress trees. Having been informed that the cost of living in Majorca was only a quarter of England's, Mr Graves arrived in Majorca in the 20s, anxious to find a suitable residence. He chose Deiá partly because its altitude meant that it was "relatively free of mosquitoes". Mr Graves remained in Deiá till his death in 1985.