Ravinder Bhogal experiences a supremely rejuvenating stay at Menorca’s palatial Vestige Son Vell
MENORCA IN THE AUTUMN HAS A STARTLING CLARITY OF LIGHT – IT’S soft, forgiving and golden, lending everything a hazy, cinematic luminescence. Plans I’d made to visit earlier in the summer had fallen apart because of work commitments, but arriving at the picturesque Vestige Son Vell, just before it closed for the season in late October, I felt like I was in the right place at exactly the right time. Here we were, in that liminal space between beauty and bleakness, basking in the last of the sun a few days before the clocks turned back.
We decompressed from our travels on the terrace with an uninterrupted view of the verdant estate, sipping vermouth on ice. Gone were the madding crowds seeking the glare of the sun, and our peaceful hush was broken only occasionally by congregations of warbling birds migrating south. A few hours later, at dusk, the sky was mesmeric as it became engulfed in flame-coloured hues, wreathing the distant hills in a riotous sunset. We sat transfixed until a smudge of the moon appeared, slowly becoming more pronounced in the inky night, its lustre revealing a glittering necklace of stars.
Set in 180 acres of unspoilt Menorcan countryside, a convenient hour’s drive from Mahon airport, Vestige Son Vell is an 18th-century manor house that, in the last four years, has received a thoughtful upgrade courtesy of Victor Madera and his wife María Obdulia Fernández. Madera is a former doctor who made his fortune by building up and selling a private-hospital group, and the couple have poured a large part of their capital into a passion for preserving and safeguarding historic buildings. Their unstoppable drive has seen them amass a portfolio of 25 period properties across Spain.
Such is the demand for renovation that they have set up their own architectural practice in Madrid, where an assembly of experts are busy re-envisioning their empire. They already have two private houses for hire – Palacio de Figueras in Asturias and Santa Ana in Menorca – but there are plans to open more hotels over the next few years, in Mallorca, the Asturias region and San Sebastián. Son Vell is the first hotel in their Vestige chain.
Regional planning laws prevented the owners from undertaking full-scale renovations. Instead, they placed the emphasis on sustainable conservation and restoration, resulting in a 34-bedroom hotel that has 18th-century bones and 21st-century creature comforts. It offers a more luxurious and design-focused alternative to some of the region’s rustic agriturismos. Weathered stone walls, vaulted ceilings and terracotta tiles have been painstakingly preserved and layered with antique relics, minimalist furniture and contemporary art, creating an intimate, lived-in serenity.
