Cap Rocat

Cap Rocat

Mallorca has been written about extensively as a Mediterranean destination, and much of that writing is accurate: the northwest is genuinely beautiful, Palma is a genuinely good city, and the beaches at the right time of year are genuinely worth the journey. What is less often said is that the island also contains one of the most singular hotel buildings in Europe, and that building happens to be fifteen kilometres from Palma airport, which makes it among the most accessible extraordinary places on the continent. Cap Rocat is a 19th-century military fortress built into the sandstone cliffs on the southern edge of the Bay of Palma, originally constructed to defend the island, later decommissioned and left to the elements for decades. It sits on 88 acres within a protected nature reserve, its two kilometres of coastline entirely private, invisible from the sea because it was designed that way. The Spanish architect Antonio Obrador spent seven years converting it, and what he produced is not a hotel that happens to be in a fortress but a fortress that has become a hotel while remaining completely, uncompromisingly itself. The drawbridge is still there. The bunkers are rooms. The shooting buttresses are suites. The battlements frame the infinity pool and the terraces from which guests now watch sunsets that were originally scouted for cannon range. There are courtyards and turrets and secret watchtowers carved out of the rock, and the whole property is navigated on foot or by buggy along paths that wind through the former military grounds. There are 24 rooms and suites in total, most of them suites, each one occupying a former military structure and each one designed with a restraint that keeps the architecture at the centre rather than competing with it. Island palm fibres, Marés stone, the work of local Mallorcan artisans throughout. The spa is twelve metres underground, carved out of the rock. The saltwater pool looks directly over the Bay of Palma. The private beach is a cliff-side cove with direct sea access. The Sea Club restaurant sits on the waterfront and cooks in a traditional Mallorcan wood-fired oven. La Fortaleza, in the main fortress building, serves a zero-kilometre menu built around the organic garden and local producers. Breakfast arrives at your terrace in a picnic hamper. The hotel is adults only from fifteen up, and closes mid-November to mid-March. The people who come here are those for whom the combination of genuine historical drama, absolute privacy, and serious luxury is not a trade-off but exactly the point. It is one of those rare hotels that could not exist anywhere else, that is entirely the product of its specific place and history, and that will not release you quickly once you have been inside it. The short version: A 19th-century military fortress on 88 private acres above the Bay of Palma, converted over seven years into one of Europe's most extraordinary hotels. Bunkers turned suites, a drawbridge that still works, a saltwater pool on the battlements, a spa twelve metres underground in the rock, a private cliff beach, and two restaurants. Adults only, fifteen minutes from Palma airport. Open March to mid-November. One of those places that is simply impossible to replicate.