I was always running round Mallorca. Finding myself on the ravine that separates Puigpunyent from Estellencs, a young boy who was telling me how to get there said: Estellencs is down there and, indeed, I saw a village in the midst of trees at the end of a stream bed that opened up as far as the sea. – Very well, I said, you will show me the way. – I don´t know the way, I´ve never been there and I don´t want to lose sight of my home village. I tried to convince him with a present but to no avail; the young boy fled towards Puigpunyent and I saw him jump joyfully, downwards, to his house. The path was full of nooks and it was partly paved with pebbles, like all the old horseshoe paths on the island and as I approached a few small houses at the edge of the village I enquired if there was a hostel to be found.

Lo que sé de Miramar (What I know about Miramar), 1911

Translated by Núria Cohen.

(Florence, Italy 1847 – Brandeis, Austria 1915). Ludwig Salvator of Habsburg and Lorena, better known as the Archduke, was a tireless traveller, a scholar who showed a keen interest in science and the arts. He is the author of Les Balears descrites per la paraula i la imatge (1869-1891) Lo que sé de Miramar (1911) and Somnis d´estiu ran de mar (1912). He was so charmed by the Balearic landscapes and by the discovery of Mallorca that it led him to settle down for long periods of time from 1872 in different locations especially in the Serra de Tramuntana.