• Casa Real La Reina premieres in Palma at the closing of the Atlàntida film festival

A path flanked by immense plane trees gives way to an orchard that in the hot summer of Mallorca looks like a mirage. The incessant sound of the chicharras recalls the heat wave, but the visitor advances along that walk with the promise and hope of refreshing and delighting in the baptized as the most beautiful garden in the world. These are the gardens of Alfabia, in Sóller, at the foot of the Tramuntana, one of the oldest and most emblematic possessions of the island. It is, together with the Granja de Esporles and Raixa, the most important rustic land on the island. And the Kings and their daughters have visited it to complete the tour of these three points, so well known by the Mallorcans. A visit with which they close a circle that began in 2013 in the Farm, continued in 2014 in the Raixa and ended yesterday in the Alfabia.

The history of this property is linked to the history of the birth of the island. Thus, when in 1229 James I conquered Mallorca, he distributed his land among the families most loyal to the Crown. Among them, the ancestors of the Zaforteza, who eight centuries later still maintain this property and its surrounding lands. Three generations of the Zafortezas received the Royal Family yesterday in their home. The place is so important to the history of Mallorca that when Queen Isabel II visited the Balearic Islands in 1860, she delighted in the beauty of these gardens. Since then, locals call it "the queen's jardinet".

A century and a half later, Don Felipe and Doña Letizia, accompanied by Leonor and Sofía, have made a journey similar to that of Isabel II, because since the great reform that the family undertook in the house in 1760 little has changed the environment.

After eight o'clock in the afternoon, the entourage of the Royal Family parked their cars at the entrance of the road from Palma to Sóller through which the Alphabetia is accessed. It was the first appearance of the Kings and their children on the island this summer, and came two days after the arrival of Doña Letizia, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia to Marivent, where they settled on Saturday, three days after Felipe VI. The Kings traveled in one car, while the Heiress and her sister arrived in another to this private visit, off schedule but held after the property will close its doors to the public. The Queen chose a fuchsia dress, carrycot and flat espadrilles; Leonor a green suit and beige espadrilles while Sofia chose a printed white dress and also put on the typical Mallorcan shoe. Don Felipe opted for a linen shirt and light trousers.

Like the rest of the tourists, the Kings accessed by the banana road, which gives way to a trellised promenade and with water games on the sides that the owners planted in 1750, with the great reform. The garden, with great influence of the English style of the time, has a tropical area with palm trees and a pond with water lilies. A musical thread of a string quartet and the sound of water received the family in this orchard. Accompanied at all times by Cristina Zaforteza, one of the three sisters who currently manage the estate, the Kings and their daughters have also seen the entrance of the house, whose façade converges various styles, and in the portal there is a coffered ceiling of the fourteenth century very well preserved and that gives way to a typical Mallorcan patio.

The idea of visiting tourist spots on the island during their stay in Mallorca was an initiative of Don Felipe and Doña Letizia from their time as Princes that took years to settle and become a tradition. Thus, until in 2012 they did not get on the train in Sóller, they did not manage to make their own family inns in places whose presence gives relevance to the area. Then came the visit to the Farm and the Raixa. After the pandemic, in 2021 they visited the monastery of Lluc and last year the Charterhouse of Valldemosa. All are private visits, which do not appear on the agenda and that serve for the heiress and her sister to soak up the culture of the island to which her family is so linked. In fact, both Leonor and Sofia were very interested and curious during the tour of the Alfabia, whose history they had previously reported.

The young women, smiling, followed attentively the explanations of their parents, who when they share outings with them change their faces to a relaxed and familiar one. They cannot hide pride in a Princess and an Infanta at a crucial vital point. Doña Leonor will enter the General Military Academy on August 17. The young woman faces these three years of military training with enthusiasm and aware of the future they have prepared for her. These days in Marivent, Doña Leonor sees through daily conversations and example how a Head of State works. Don Felipe has a very clear Balearic agenda as Pedro Sánchez has decided not to celebrate the summer office that took place every year in Palma. That has left him one more day to participate in the Copa del Rey Mapfre, which started on Monday and ended with the Aifos, a sailboat captained by His Majesty, fourth. The King lamented afterwards that it could have gone better, although at the same time he consoled himself that it could also have gone worse.

However, the absence of institutional activity and although the head of state does not make political pronouncements, the King does follow events closely, since these days are a small parenthesis before starting, at the end of August, the round of consultations with the representatives of all the parliamentary groups to propose a candidate to form a government. But politics did not enter the Alphabety and the beauty of an exquisite orchard cared for with care by the same family for centuries.

The Heiress and her sister are not expected to have more commitments these days, beyond some family dinner in the restaurants they go to with the rest of the family.

While the Kings and their daughters were in Sóller, Queen Sofia was in Motril, where she inaugurated the museum that has become the Villa Astrida residence, which was the summer home of Fabiola and Baudouin of the Belgians. This year marks the xxx anniversary of the death of the king who married the Spanish aristocrat. For this reason, Felipe VI took advantage of his visit to Motril last June to approach Villa Astrida in private. Doña Sofía has enjoyed the tranquility of the surroundings, while the Queen has marveled at centuries-old holm oaks.

  • Philip VI
  • Queen Letizia
  • Princess Eleanor
  • Infanta Sofia
  • Queen Sofia

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