Minis at La Granja, Mallorca

[Kells]

Completely by accident we recently stumbled across La Granja in Mallorca, Spain. La Granja is an old Mallorcan finca (farmhouse) preserved to show what life was like on a Mallorcan farm in the 17th thru 19th centuries. We absolutely loved it. Here are two videos if you're interested. The first one is short, the second is much longer. These are on Youtube, I did not film them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK7Spuekr1U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFy--9KmrVA

I told myself I wouldn't think of minis or dollhouses for one moment while on vacation. Yeah, nice try, they pop up everywhere you go. I took a few photos of miniatures at La Granja. The first photo is of a mini opera house built around a stage in the theatre room. Back in the day you had to make your own entertainment and that was especially true in a rural home. This row of opera boxes surrounded a stage and was filled with dolls, a ready-made audience to appreciate your performance!

The next two photos are of an antique dollhouse that was behind chicken wire in a playroom.

The last two are of a dollhouse without roof or exterior walls, I think purposely built that way. That staircase on its first floor was a stunner!

I couldn't find pics online so I'm afraid my shoddy photographs taken on a cellphone will have to do.

 

[NellBell]

WoW these are amazing

 

[Kells]

These are not dollhouses, per se, but the miniature settings for the dolls somewhat qualify. We visited the Fundació Bartolomé March in Palma, also called the Palau March Museu. The March family was fabulously wealthy (still is, with the Banca March ranked as one of the most solvent banks in the world) and they donated their palace in Palma and much of their art collection to Mallorca. We had the entire palace to ourselves. Seriously, after paying the admissions attendant, we never saw another soul. It was awesome.

The upper floor contains the fabulous palace rooms set up as they were when the March family lived there. The first floor, however, contains multiple rooms and display cases of 1/6th scale carved figures called Belèn Napolitano (Belèn is, I think, Spanish for Bethlehem). There are over 2000 figures not counting all the scale dishes and foods and etc.

In the 18th century, it was popular to make scale religious figures to represent biblical stories so the uneducated masses could better visualize them. What I found interesting was that the figures were not clothed in the attire of Jesus' time or put into settings of that era, but rather dressed and put into settings that reflected everyday life in 18th Century Italy. One of the March family collected them which is why these are in Palma now.

Anyway, the "current day" settings and attire were so that people could visualize themselves in those biblical stories. It made them more relevant and not just historical tales. Below are two short videos off Youtube and some photos. The entourage of the three kings making their way to Bethlehem was breathtaking. I guess I'd always visualized that story as three old men making their way alone across the desert. Well, no, they were KiNGS so they'd have taken many servants and supplies with them. Makes sense, right? It was spectacular and that display alone must have been at least twelve feet long.

 

[havanaholly]

Thank you for sharing, Kelly.  Those are awesome.