Bendinat
Encyclopedia
Bendinat is a seaside village in the municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 of Calvià
Calvià
Calvià is a municipality on the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is located in the southwestern part of the island of Majorca, between the Serra de Tramuntana and the Serra de Na Burguesa. The municipal seat is the town of Vila Calvia.Calvià...

 on the west coast of the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 autonomous community
Autonomous communities of Spain
An autonomous community In other languages of Spain:*Catalan/Valencian .*Galician .*Basque . The second article of the constitution recognizes the rights of "nationalities and regions" to self-government and declares the "indissoluble unity of the Spanish nation".Political power in Spain is...

 of the Balearic Islands
Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands are an archipelago of Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.The four largest islands are: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The archipelago forms an autonomous community and a province of Spain with Palma as the capital...

. It is located at the foot of the Serra de Na Burguesa
Serra de Na Burguesa
Serra de Na Burguesa is a well-defined mountain on the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is the southernmost portion of the Serra de Tramuntana range, terminating in the Mediterranean Sea at Bay of Palma. Na Burguesa is located approximately...

. Much of Bendinat is a residential area, and it is situated next to the town of Portals Nous
Portals Nous
Portals Nous is a neighborhood in the municipality of Calvià on the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It includes the residential neighborhood of Bendinat, and it is adjacent to El Toro to the west, La Porrassa the east, Son Ferrer north, and the...

. Its major thoroughfare is the county road C-719. The population is approximately 521.

There are two main theories surrounding Bendinat's naming origin. An ethnological one is that after the September 12, 1229 battle for the conquest of Majorca, King James of Aragon
James II of Aragon
James II , called the Just was the King of Sicily from 1285 to 1296 and King of Aragon and Valencia and Count of Barcelona from 1291 to 1327. In 1297 he was granted the Kingdom of Sardinia and Corsica...

, who was famished, came upon a tent with one of his lieutenants where a meal was being prepared. The host for that meal was En Oliver de Termens, a Frenchman of Roussillon
Roussillon
Roussillon is one of the historical counties of the former Principality of Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales...

. After eating to their satisfaction, the king declared Ben dinat (Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

: "well dined"). The other naming theory is geographical in context as in the 13th century, an old Islamic farmhouse in the area was named Bendinex.

History

The area is historically notable as the place where King James camped in 1229 after a bloody battle against the Moors
Moors
The description Moors has referred to several historic and modern populations of the Maghreb region who are predominately of Berber and Arab descent. They came to conquer and rule the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years. At that time they were Muslim, although earlier the people had followed...

.

From the early sixteenth century, Francesc Burgués, the Solicitor-General of the Spanish Crown owned the Bendinat farm which is now the Bendinat residential zone. In 1590 event, Burgués married Elizabeth who had been the spouse of Bernat de Boixadors of Barcelona. In the seventeenth century, the estates passed from Burgués to Jerònim de Sales i de Verí who in 1666, won the lawsuit of Boixadors-Pacs along with the Burgués inheritance. The farmland held important agricultural production value, but only peasant houses and outbuildings stood on the property. The estate passed to Caro, Marquis de la Romana, when Pere Caro i Sales inherited it through his mother Dionísia de Sales i Boixadors. The property's status was reviewed in 1850 by the Spanish writer and Majorcan chronicler, Joaquín María Bover i Roselló.

The architect and town planner François Spoerry
François Spoerry
After the war ended, he opened his first architectural firm in Mulhouse where he associated with a significant number of reconstruction projects. In Mulhouse, he was the planner of the new town centre. He also built in Mulhouse the Tour of Europe, the largest structure in contemporary France whose...

 (1912 -1999) developed the community of Bendinat.

Tourist attractions

Bendinat Castle was the idea of Pedro Caro, 3rd Marquis of la Romana. The work began after 1855, and was finished in 1867. It was built in 19th century Central European
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

 Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 style. The 2800 acres (11.3 km²) estate was sold by the Marquis of la Romana in 1876 to Joana-Adelaida Dameto. It was later owned by the Count of Montenegro. While tourists can see the castle from a distance, it is privately owned and unavailable for tours.

Royal Bendinat Golf Club ("Real Golf de Bendinat") opened in 1986 and was expanded a decade later. The honorary president of the exclusive golf club is King Juan Carlos of Spain
Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...

.

Cala Bendinat is a 50 m (164 ft) long and 20 m (65.6 ft) beach which is surrounded by a pine grove and is reachable from the residential area by the street Calvo Sotelo.
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