Venues for the Deiá Festival
The International Festival of Deià, founded in 1987, takes place in Son Marroig (the former residence of the Archduke Ludwig Salvatore Lorena and Bourbon of Austria), and in the village church. These venues are small, appropriate for chamber music, with space for about 200 in the public.
The first concerts in the Festival took place in the Deià church. Here is Stephanie Shepard playing flute with Francisco Sard on violin. Patrick Meadows is in the background with the old DeBlaise spinet. The Stevenson 2-manual harpsichord is now used when we have Baroque music in the Deià church, la Parroquia de San Juan Bautista.
This "possessió" in Deià adopted the last name of the owners, the Masroig family; later it was called sa Foradad d'es Masroig, and finally Son Marroig.
In 1624 the property consisted of a house with a tower, olive press, two wine cellars, and was dedicated to wine, grain, olve groves and carob, plus honey bees and silk worms.
The Austrian Archduke Luis Salvador acquired the properto in 1870 from the wealthy family of C'an Cortey. The Aruchduke resided for long periods in the mansion, and considered it the best location on Mallorca.
On the Archduke´s death Son Marroig passed into the hands of his secretary, Antoni Vives. In 1929 Antoni Ribas Prats installed a museum which contains paintings by Joan Bauça, Anglada Camarass, Eliseu Mcifrèn, as well as Ribas himself, and Greek, Phoenician, and Roman ceramics, a selection of Spanish-Arab and Italian plates, as well as numerous personal souvenirs of the Archduke.
Sometimes, for larger groups or more popular concerts, we also organize concerts in the village park, built in the form of an amphitheater.
