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A lot has changed in Port de Port de Pollença over the last 100 years, and so too has Hotel Miramar, although even today, it still maintains its excellent service and affection for clients. Hotel Miramar is packed with beautiful stories written by its owners, but also its clients who return to stay here year after year, and by doing so, continue to write its history. The origins of the Hotel date back to the start of the 20th century. Like a lot of other families, the Borrás Cerdà family earned a living from fishing, tough work for which it used a “llaüt” (traditional Balearic Island fishing vessel). Hotel Miramar provided lodgings for the first tourists such as Fernando Moragues, who was able to photograph the fishing house, used as an inn-boarding house transformed into a modern hotel. Artists also came to the hotel, such as Anglada Camarasa and his group until it became the painter´s residence for a long period. In fact, there were some Argentine artists such as Tito Cittadini Aníbal Nocetti, Roberto Ramsugé, Luis Cordiviola and the Mexican Roberto Montenegro, disciples of the master Anglada Camarasa, as well as Gragorio López Nagil. Jorge Enciso, Adan Diehl, Juan Vives LLull, Rafel Duran-Camps returned to Mallorca and moved into Hotel Miramar while they awaited a permanent residence on the island.
There are several accounts that recall the great Anglada Camarasa´s stay at Hotel Miramar. A good example is the cartoon that the great artist dedicated to the owners of the Hotel, it reads:
“Two ladies ask a man why he has put on so much weight, to which he responds: I´m at Hotel Miramar. You should see the chef! He is amazing”
Another of the documents that has been preserved is Anglada Camarasa´s dedication in the hotel´s visitor book:
“As a witness and one of the first clients of this hotel when it was founded, I have been able to see the tenacity and affection displayed in work, which along with your renowned empathy and care, has allowed you to create a reputation of being: Magnificent!”
It is also worth highlighting the Mexican painter Roberto Montenegro. He was famous throughout the world for his murals, and lived in Port de Pollença for four years. Between 1914 and 1919 Mallorca became a centre of attention for painters and writers who, fleeing from the horrors of the Great War of Europe, searched for the myth of a lost paradise on a then placid island, where life was happy and slow moving, as if caught between the cracks of history. Many came to Port de Pollença and more specifically, to Hotel Miramar. Almost a century later, this area preserves a great deal of the charm that fascinated men such as Anglada Camarasa, Santiago Russinyol and Roberto Ramaugé, the mythical owner of “Sa Fortaleza”. Among this group of bohemian artists that thought about discovering their uncharted Ithaca on a lost island, there is a major unknown figure. We are talking about a painter whose work bears silent witness to the changes of our politics, but whose name is unfamiliar outside circles of connoisseurs. Roberto Montenegero was indeed a key figure in that era of artistic splendour, which was somewhat worldly. He went on to leave his mark on our land, which is so often forgetful, along with other outsiders, who were able to love the place like it was their own.
Roberto Montenegro, a Mexican painter born in Guadalajara, came to Mallorca at the age of 27. The painter arrived with the belief that he would only spend a short period on the island. On his boat trip towards Mallorca he wrote:
“It was sunrise and from the boat I could see the silhouette of the city of Palma, where the Gothic cathedral stood out along with two or three large buildings enveloped by a pink mist…Right after crossing the light filled city of Palma, I took the little train that goes to Pollença and the splendid mirage began: smiling fields, woods of blossoming almond trees set against the cobalt of the Mediterranean, ashen green olive groves and twisted tree trunks: white homesteads scattered over the foothills of the golden mountains and all under a blue sky, that is only comparable with my distant Guadalajara…”
The fact is that Montenegro was so fascinated by the landscapes and the atmosphere in Port de Pollença that he stayed there for four years that he himself defined as “the most beautiful of my life”. It was at Hotel Miramar where he established contact with Anglada Camarasa, Tito Cittadini, López Naguil, Jorge Enciso and Adan Dhiel. They were all fascinated by the idyllic landscapes of north Mallorca, and lived in their fishing cabins in Cala Sant Vicenç. In the words of Ortiz Gaitán, they had found:
“A state of unadulterated purity, a long way from the tumult of Europe: a Golden Age, a hopeful Arcadia far from the horrors of war and the tyranny of social structure”
Montenegro stayed for a long time at Hotel Miramar, which was the only establishment in Port de Pollença. After such a long time, the lobby of the Hotel has become a little gallery. In addition to some works by Montenegro, on its walls you can admire oil paintings by Camarasa and other painters from the so-called “Pollensa School”.
Es numerosa la bibliografía dedicada a Hermen Anglada-Camarasa. Cabe destacar los dos libros de Francesc Fontbona y Francesc Miralles Anglada-Camarasa (Polígrafa, Barcelona, 1981) y Anglada-Camarasa. Dibujos. Catálogo razonado (Mediterrània, Barcelona, 2006). Además, es remarcable el catálogo de la exposición permanente de Anglada-Camarasa en el CaixaForum de Palma titulado El món d’Anglada-Camarasa (Palma, 2006).
Sobre Tito Cittadini, cabe destacar sobre todo el libro de Catalina Cantarellas Assaig per a una recuperació crítica del pintor Tito Cittadini (1886-1960), editado por el Ayuntamiento de Palma y el Museu de Mallorca el 1983. También hay información valiosa en el libro de Francisca Lladó, Pintores argentinos en Mallorca (1900-1939), Palma (2006).
Sobre Joaquim Mir hay referencias en la Guia del Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, coordinada por Montserrat Gumà, Barcelona (2004).
El paisaje de la Serra de Tramuntana no es sólo un activo turístico de Mallorca. También es una fuente privilegiada de inspiración artística –en la medida en la que el arte pueda ser fruto de la inspiración. Pintores de todas las nacionalidades se han instalado en los pueblos de la Serra de Tramuntana cautivados por su misterio y su belleza. Ya a principios del siglo XX diversos pintores modernistas catalanes se sintieron atraídos por el poderoso encanto de estos paisajes. Uno de los primeros fue Hermen Anglada-Camarasa (Barcelona, 1871- Port de Pollença, 1959), que fijó su residencia en Pollença a partir de 1914 en el Hotel Miramar, después de algunos años de trabajo intenso y éxito en París. Con Anglada-Camarasa vino también su discípulo aventajado, el pintor argentino Tito Cittadini (Buenos Aires, 1886- Pollença, 1960). Juntos crearon la llamada «Escola de Pollença», grupo al que se añadió el pintor de Pollença Dionís Bennàssar (Pollença, 1904-1967).
Hermen Anglada-Camarasa conocía de su época de contactos con los pintores de Els Quatre Gats de Barcelona, a Santiago Rusiñol (Barcelona, 1861- Aranjuez, 1931) y a Joaquim Mir (Barcelona, 1873- 1940). Ambos habían viajado a Mallorca a finales del siglo XX y se habían fascinado con la Serra de Tramuntana. El primer viaje de Rusiñol a Mallorca fue en 1893. Desde aquel primer contacto, fueron frecuentes por sus estancias en la isla: Rusiñol, entre otros lugares, se alojó en Pollença, en la Cala de Sant Vicenç, en Valldemossa o en el barrio del Terreno en Palma. Joaquim Mir acompañó a Rusiñol en Mallorca en 1899 y e impactó tanto que decidió vivir en Sa Calobra hasta 1903, año en que sufrió una crisis nerviosa y se trasladó a un instituto psiquiátrico de Reus. En 1902 Rusiñol y Mir recibieron el encargo de decorar con unos plafones el edificio modernista del Gran Hotel de Palma, proyectado por el arquitecto catalán Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Como modelo de estos plafones se escogieron diferentes paisajes de la Serra de Tramuntana: vistas de Pollença, de la Cala de Sant Vicenç, del Castell del Rei, etc. La relación entre los dos pintores fue muy tensa, debido, sobre todo, al carácter difícil de Joaquim Mir, artista solitario, vehemente y arisco, que, de hecho, ya había tenido problemas un año antes con los habitantes de las cercanías de Sa Calobra, por rivalidades en relación con una mujer. Le quemaron un cuadro y tuvo que huir a la montaña, donde se escondió durante algunos días.
Anglada Camarasa salía por los alrededores de Pollença para dibujar y fotografiar pequeños rincones, huertos, construcciones rústicas…
Con una estética personal pero influida por su maestro, Cittadini lideró junto con Anglada-Camarasa la Escola de de Pollença.
Escrit per Don Miquel Segura.