Spotlight North: Atlas returning to Pollensa

The restoration will pretty much be a total reconstruction

The restoration will pretty much be a total reconstruction | E. BALLESTERO

Andrew EdePollensa22/05/2021 11:54

It is ten summers since Tom Hanks and Halle Berry were in Mallorca for location shootings for ‘Cloud Atlas’. One of the locations was Formentor beach, which is a decent enough distance from Pollensa itself for marauding Moorish hordes to manage to get lost. The tale is told that when Dragut and his men disembarked in Formentor at the end of May 1550, a division, disoriented by the darkness, failed to make it for the battle that is now celebrated every August the second; although probably not this August, again.

The date of the battle, May 31, is celebrated but not in as dramatic fashion as it is in August. This year, for example, the Tropa band of cornets and drums will be in the streets from today until Thursday; all part of an initiative to gather food for those who need it. The band is unlikely to get as far as the old Can Morató factory, which is where Atlas is returning. Not Tom Hanks, this is the title of the winning project to restore the building.

Can Morató has been acquired by the Colonya bank, which will convert it into a headquarters and a place for cultural and social events. The restoration will pretty much be a total reconstruction, such is the poor condition of the textiles factory, which dates from 1920 and was abandoned in the early 1960s. A jury of architects and Colonya representatives has selected the Atlas project proposed by architects Jordi Badia, Jero Gutiérrez and Erik Herrera.

The original front of the building will be maintained and restored, while the interior will have offices, a multifunctional hall with an auditorium that can seat 260 people and a museum.

The winning team is excited at the prospect of rehabilitating “a magnificent building that offers great possibilities”. The project’s aim is “to respect as much as possible all the original attributes of the building” and to ensure that it is “harmonious” with Pollensa.