Es Racó d’Artà

There has been a farm at this site since the 13th century, built on an earlier Berber settlement. The land itself, nearly 200 hectares of Mallorcan countryside bordered by the Llevant Natural Park, has been cultivated continuously for almost a thousand years: olive groves, almond trees, fig trees, carob, citrus, vineyards producing biodynamic wines, heritage xeixa wheat fields providing the daily bread, and an organic vegetable garden from which the kitchen sources its changing seasonal menus. This depth of agricultural continuity is not incidental to the healing offer at Es Racó d’Artà. It is its foundation.

Antoni Esteva, the Mallorcan architect who also designed Six Senses Vana in India, brought the same philosophy to the restoration here: whitewashed walls, natural stone, minimal intervention, spaces that make silence legible rather than filling it. The light moves through the rooms differently because of the choices made about what not to include. Artworks by Miquel Barceló, Hiroshi Kitamura and Pere Ignasi inhabit the interiors without overwhelming them. The former pig sty has become an elegant yoga and meditation shala, one of the most architecturally honest conversions of agricultural space into contemplative space in contemporary European hospitality. The Watsu dome, the spa’s most distinctive built element, houses a pool for floating Watsu and Wata sessions, the property’s signature treatment: Zen Shiatsu-inspired bodywork performed in warm water, where the body’s surrender to buoyancy allows the practitioner to work in ways that gravity makes impossible.

Es Racó d’Artà holds a certified medical centre designation, which in Spain requires regulatory compliance that most wellness retreats do not meet. Within this framework, Integrative Medicine is available: a humanised approach that combines conventional diagnostic medicine with homeopathy, acupuncture, bioimmunogenetics, osteopathy and colon hydrotherapy, with the psychosomatic origin of pathology as a guiding premise and the body’s capacity for homeostasis and self-regeneration as the therapeutic goal. Acupuncture with quartz crystals and craniosacral massage sit alongside Watsu as signature modalities. Nutritional consultations create bespoke daily menus for guests, a service provided by Gemma Bes, wife of the estate’s architect and nutritionist to the globally recognised professional athlete who trained in this same Mallorcan landscape.

The Essence retreat programme gives structure to longer stays: daily morning yoga (sixty minutes, rotating between Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Yin and Ana Hatha), guided meditation, guided walks, conscious movement and workshops that range from traditional palmito basket weaving in the ancient Llatra technique to natural scents, medicinal plant knowledge, clay art therapy, sound healing, psychedelic breathwork, mindful cooking and pottery. Two or three meals per day are included within retreats, served at Beni Axir restaurant where the menu changes with the seasons and the land, and where the outdoor terrace is lit by lights hanging from olive tree branches.

The 34 rooms and suites include rooms in the main 13th-century building, and a collection of individual casitas, cottages and villas scattered across the estate, some with private pools. The outdoor infinity pool, treated naturally without chlorine, appears from its terrace to float toward the sierra in the distance, hovering above the citrus and olive and almond groves. The indoor pool, jacuzzi and sauna complete the water dimension. For the local area: the historic town of Artà is five kilometres away, the Llevant Nature Reserve begins at the estate boundary, and the northeast coast’s unspoilt beaches, cave systems and walking and cycling routes are within easy reach.