A PAUSE BETWEEN PALACIOS

Convent de la Missió, a luxury boutique hotel restored from a 17th-century monastery in Palma de Mallorca balances history, art and quiet luxury

- TEXT BY SHRITI DAS PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY TORRE DE CANYAMEL GROUP

In Palma's old town, a maze of arched portals hides secret courtyards, sandstone palacios and forgotten cloisters. Set along one of its quieter inner roads, Convent de la Missió is easy to miss. It's not hidden, it is just unexpected in a town that sees a huge European population on holiday.

But that is Mallorca for you. It has adapted itself to the urban traveller, aesthetes and those who seek something beyond the nocturnal offerings of neighbouring Ibiza. Built in the 1600s for Jesuit noviciate, the convent's life changed drastically after the Jesuits were expelled in 1767. Its once-sacred walls fell into disuse and took on various civic and utilitarian functions over the centuries.