14/08/2013 00:00
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STAFF REPORTER THE King and Queen of Spain officially reopened the Bartolomé March Foundation gardens of Sa Torre Cega in Cala Rajada on Sunday. Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofia went on a short walkabout of the main entrance area of the gardens which cover in all some 70'000 square metres and which were destroyed when a hurricane struck the island on the night of 10th November, 2001.


The King and Queen were accompanied by the President of the Bartolomé March Foundation, Luis Alberto Salazar-Simpson, members of the March merchant banking family, the President of the Balearic Islands Francesc Antich and the Mayor of Capdepera, Josep Gallego.Their Majesties were separately taken on a tour of another part of the gardens in an electric car.

Then with invited guests, Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía visited the house of sa Torre Cega and an art exhibition which is being shown there focusing on abstract landscape art in Cala Rajada.

The event had been specially organised in collaboration with the Banco Santander Foundation to celebrate the restoration of the gardens.
On one of the terraces adjacent to the house, Marita March, the daughter of the late Bartolomé March and patron of the Foundation, thanked the King and Queen for attending the opening. She also paid special tribute to her husband and children for being the driving force behind restoring the gardens to their former glory after the disaster of 2001.

The gardens also house a number of important sculptures which had been collected by her father.
In his speech, the Mayor of Capdepera, Josep Gallego, highlighted the cultural, historic and touristic contribution that the gardens at sa Torre Cega have made to Majorca. The President of the Bartolomé March Foundation, Luis Alberto Salazar-Simpson, said that the sight of the gardens after their destruction had been a sad one indeed.He said that the building of sa Torre Cega has acted as a kind of historical watch tower over the gardens which have now recovered the glory that they enjoyed when they were first created in the 1960s.

Their Majesties and guests were invited to a cocktail and an official background flourish was given to the occasion by the presence of the Music Band of Capdepera.