Casa Robert Graves is a fascinating tribute to the writer who moved to Deià in 1929 and had his house built here three years later. It's a well-presented insight into his life; on show you'll find period furnishings, audiovisual displays and various items and books that belonged to Graves himself.
The three-storey stone house, Ca N’Alluny (House in the Distance), is a testament to his life and work. Graves left hurriedly in 1936 at the outbreak of civil war, entrusting the house to the care of a local. The Spanish authorities allowed him to return 10 years later and he found everything as he had left it. ‘If I had felt so inclined, I could have sat down and…started work straight away’, he later commented. And even now, the whole place is set up as if Graves had just stepped out for a stroll. His voice rings out through the rooms as his reading of his poem The Face in the Mirror is played in a loop of seemingly eternal playback; the effect is curiously powerful.
Famous for such works as I, Claudius, the novelised version of the Roman emperor’s life, Robert Graves also wrote reams of verse and a book on his adopted homeland, Mallorca Observed (1965); the prologue to his The Golden Fleece is set in Deià. A handful of his 146 works is available for sale at the ticket office, and ask there also for the 'Reading Suggestions' information sheet.
