The Serra de Tramuntana is a mountain range that runs along the northwestern edge of the island of Majorca, off the coast of mainland Spain. Its towering peaks and valleys are lined with ancient olive groves, lemon orchards and picturesque hilltop villages. The winding pathways that dot the rugged cliffs plunge through pine trees and goat herds to meet the Mediterranean Sea.

Nine years ago, the British fashion photographer Kate Bellm decided to make these mountains her home, building a house just off the coastal road between the towns of Deia and Soller and commuting to shoots for clients like Gucci and magazines like British Vogue. In 2020, after she fell in love with the 18th-century finca next door, she and her husband, the Mexican artist Edgar Lopez Arellano, decided to turn their hands to hospitality.

Hotel Corazon opened earlier this month, after more than two years of work by the couple alongside a team from Moredesign, a local architecture practice that’s a mainstay of glossy magazines like Architectural Digest.

“We were covered in dust for months and months,” Ms. Bellm, 35, said as she made her way from a cavernous room with a fireplace centerpiece — perfect for snuggle puddles or sound baths, she declared — and into a verdant inner courtyard. The hotel’s aesthetic, and particularly its bedrooms, feels heavily influenced by the organic architecture movement of the 1970s, which espoused carving out a harmonious balance between the synthetic and natural worlds.

All of the rooms are individually designed but share curving pigmented lime walls in soft shades of pink, sage and ocher; custom-made furniture by local artisans; shaggy carpets; and windows that open out onto gardens overflowing with palm and jacaranda trees, honeysuckle and cactuses (Mr. Arellano, 40, who specializes in constructing zero-water cactus gardens, was busy potting several varieties on the restaurant terrace nearby.) Rooms range from 550 euros (about $600) to 1,800 euros.

“When I came here for the first time, I knew immediately what we needed to do and what it had the capacity to give,” said Ms. Bellm, who wore stonewashed denim flares and braids in her mane of hair. “A place this island is missing — a supercool hotel that feels like the private home of a friend, with wellness at its core and where you can’t break the rules because there are none. I wanted to create a place that my people — fashion people — will totally love.”

Earlier this month the supermodel Anja Rubik, who owns a house on Majorca, booked Hotel Corazon to celebrate her 40th birthday. Alexandre de Betak, who produces runway shows, and Mario Sorrenti, the fashion photographer, also own holiday houses close by.

But don’t most of the fashion “it” crowd descend on Ibiza during the summer? Ms. Bellm wrinkled her nose.

“I feel like the big dogs come here,” she said. “Obviously Ibiza is great to pop in, but it’s just a different scene, shall we say. I feel like Majorca is very unpretentious. You can just be in your pajamas all day basically, especially here at Corazon. This is a hotel for those who want to be barefoot, eat straight from the trees, swim in the sea at night and get lost in the pines.”

Concierge services will be via WhatsApp for guests wanting to know the best hidden swimming coves and caves for summer, or hiking trails to waterfalls and meadows full of wild mountain flowers during the cooler seasons. Adventure fuel can be found in the hotel’s homemade date shakes or matcha smoothies, and restoration in its yoga, sound healing, massage and reiki sessions.

The menu is designed to be “local, seasonal, medicinal and delicious,” Ms. Bellm said, with most of the produce grown in Hotel Corazon’s newly planted organic farm with 50 garden beds. There is also an artist residency program underway, with painters, sculptors and ceramists chosen by Ms. Bellm to stay and create work at the hotel, with a final exhibition in Corazon’s gallery at the end of their time there.

“I love collaborating with artists and to see how they make things — it gives you inspirations to do things differently in your own world” said Ms. Bellm, whose main client is currently Zara and who added that she was shooting more and more work at the hotel and on the island. “Plus, we can also help them tap into the creative community that exists here in Majorca, who can fix their vintage cameras or fire their pots. I want people to be able to thrive on this place like I have.”

After forging her professional reputation on super-sexy depictions of, in her words, “rock ’n’ roll babes,” Ms. Bellm said that her muses now were “the wild mothers of Majorca who live near me and take their babies in the rocks and, like, swim naked with starfish in their hands. They are so badass.” Ms. Bellm’s son, Sage, was born on the island.

It is little surprise that one of her favorite pastimes at the hotel is topless gardening with neighbors.

“We should totally also do a sound bath down here, it really floats you into another realm” she said excitedly as she walked through the farm and chomped into a ripened peach. “The more I think about it, the more I just want to be around the veggies and have them experience the gong too.”

Elizabeth Paton is a reporter for the Styles section, covering the fashion and luxury sectors in Europe. Before joining The Times in 2015, she was a reporter at the Financial Times both in London and New York. @LizziePaton

Source: Read Full Article