You could easily miss Mallorca's smallest village, which consists of little more than a bend in the Deia to Soller road. With just a handful of houses and a hotel, it would make an ideal base for a walking holiday in the nearby mountains.
Tucked into the mountainside a few kilometres north of Deia, Llucalcari is technically a "llogaret" rather than a village in its own right, since it has no town hall of its own and falls under Deia's municipality. Around fifteen to twenty houses cling to the slope above the sea, joined by a small chapel dating back to the 1600s. The name is thought to combine the Latin "lucus", meaning sacred wood, with an Arabic word for a cluster of houses, hinting at just how long people have been settling here.
The hamlet's history is more storied than its size suggests. Pablo Picasso is said to have stayed here briefly during a visit to Mallorca, and Llucalcari has long drawn painters and writers seeking peace away from Deia's busier lanes. It was here, in 1978, that a small group of professional and amateur musicians began performing concerts that would eventually grow into the Deia International Music Festival, one of the island's most respected classical music events.
