Most beautiful villages in Balearic Islands

The three villages in this selection share the same backdrop: the Serra de Tramuntana, the mountain range that runs along the north-west of Mallorca and drops almost sheer into the Mediterranean. Stone, terraces, olive groves and orange trees make up a landscape shaped by centuries of work, which explains why many people consider these to be the most beautiful villages in the Balearic Islands. Fornalutx, Sóller and Deià lie just a few kilometres apart, so you can link them at a leisurely pace without changing valley or character.

Even so, each one tells a different story. Sóller looks out to sea from its port and preserves defensive towers that recall the corsair attack of 1561, an event the town still commemorates every May; beneath that memory lie prehistoric roots, too. Fornalutx, its neighbour, is a small, tucked-away village, listed among The Most Beautiful Villages of Spain and recognised for the care it lavishes on its streets and natural surroundings. Deià, by contrast, overlooks the coast from terraces of Moorish origin and owes much of its fame to the writer Robert Graves, who found a creative refuge here and whose house-museum is open to visitors.

Defence against the sea, an Andalusi legacy in the countryside and the literary imprint of the 20th century: three layers overlapping in the same corner of Mallorca, revealing an island very different from the one associated solely with its beaches.