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The renovation of Sant Joan de Binissaida |
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The property was in a very precarious state when it was purchased by the current owners in 1994. The manor house’s ground floor was completely abandoned, the entry fence was blocked and there was just one small bathroom located under the main staircase. The attics were uninhabitable and the roofs and patios had to be redone. The waterwheel had practically disappeared. Nothing was left of the old wooden spars; a few concrete slabs had been made and the water had dried out. The reservoir fed by water from another well had nevertheless been conserved. Next to it and the bread oven (also unusable) two sheds had been put up to house vehicles and services, which ruined the beauty of the whole area, and both stable and barn were in a state of total abandonment that made them entirely inoperable. Lastly, stones had not been removed from the fields, nor had the dry stone walls surrounding them been kept in good repair. All this meant that major investment was needed for conversion into usable agricultural land.
Once the decision was made to renovate all the buildings and prepare the estate’s land (12 hectares) for agricultural, livestock and forestry use, the reforestation of six of those hectares (the closest to the sea) was begun, using pines and wild olives in accordance with guidelines of the European Union’s reforestation programme. Stones were removed from the remaining hectares, which have since been used to produce cereals and fodder for the sheep and Minorcan horses that comprise the estate’s livestock wealth.
Regarding the buildings, when the owners decided to convert the estate into a rustic hotel, they commissioned the renovation work to the young architect and landscape designer Elisabet Quinta Seguí (http://elisabet.quintanasegui.com ). The residence was renovated between 1998 and 2002. In late 2004 and early 2005 the old stable-barn was redone, a play area was set up and the entire swimming pool area renovated. The year 2008 has witnessed renovation of most of the house’s ground floor, which is now a vanguard restaurant whose kitchen is endowed with the latest technological advances.
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