Manor house of the magnate Juan March Ordinas in Santa Margalida

Huis Santa Margalida

Objektbeschrijving:

This spectacular mansion belonged to the magnate Juan March Ordinas*, and housed the first branch of the Juan March Bank which was inaugurated in 1905, coinciding with the marriage of the owner to Leonor Servera Melis, daughter of the potentate of Manacor, Bartolomé Servera Gili. It was the wedding gift of her father, Juan March Estelrich, to the newlyweds and their two sons were also born here, Juan March Servera in 1906 and Bartolomé March Servera in 1917.

*March Ordinas, Juan. Santa Margarita, Mallorca (Balearic Islands), 3.10.1880 - Madrid, 9th businessman and great capitalist.

Born in a very humble, middle-class home and with only an elementary education, under the influence of his countryman Toniet Farol, a smuggler from Santanyi, he soon entered the world of dubious business. He quickly became a tobacco manufacturer in Algiers, combining this activity with the purchase and sale of considerable landed property in Alicante and La Mancha. In 1911 he discovered the real key to his fortune - the tobacco monopoly in Morocco, initially without the territories which were renewed in 1919. By that time Juan March had already become one of the country's leading figures, thanks to the opportunities which the First World War provided for the advance of his activities. His commitment to maritime transport in that period - protected by the astronomical freight prices - allowed him in 1918 to take control of the Compañía Naval Transmediterránea, founded in November 1916, which absorbed the local company La Isleña Marítima under his leadership. Although in the postwar period the network of his companies included the entire peninsula plus some countries abroad, before the establishment of the first Spanish dictatorship of the 19th century he devoted himself above all to establishing an unchallenged supremacy on the island where he was born, waging fierce battles with the Mallorcan oligarchy and with the dominant Maurism at the head of the Balearic Islands. His main goal was to create a new archetype of entrepreneur and capitalist, closely linked to the working class and the most ideologically advanced sectors of the establishment. His closeness to the Balearic proletariat was evident in his financial support for some of their work, as well as in his commitment to albism in which he won the first of his three seats in the national parliament in 1923, albeit as an "independent."

A year earlier, during the last government which was led by its most prominent member Antonio Maura, finance minister Francesc Cambó firmly supported the prosecution of March by a number of high-ranking representatives of the administration who were appalled by his methods and example.

The dictatorship continued along this path, particularly as Primo de Rivera harboured a deep contempt for Santiago Alba which accompanied him during his French exile.

Nevertheless, his return and the will of the Andalusian general were accepted almost without delay, and he gave his consent to the extension of his tobacco monopoly to Ceuta and Melilla and to the creation of Banca March in 1926, but he was not given the opportunity to enter Campsa, and the dictatorial power even confiscated the Compañía de Petróleos de Porto Pi, which March had founded in 1925 for that purpose.

All setbacks and difficulties for the dazzling business career of the Balearic capitalist, but in no way comparable to those that arose with the creation of the Second Republic.

When the latter abolished his tobacco monopoly in June 1931, the winning of a parliamentary seat for his homeland in the elections of the same month and the support of Alejandro Lerroux were not enough to prevent the cancellation of his parliamentary seat by the majority of the Cortes. This happened after a heated debate within the Cortes and in the press, which was partly under the control of the Mallorcan financier who had the unconditional support of a personality like Azorín.

He was imprisoned on June 15, 1932, and one and a half years later, after a new parliamentary election was declared invalid, he managed an unprecedented escape from Alcalá de Henares prison and fled to Gibraltar and later to France, from where he returned months later to take his seat in the Cortes.

After the civil war March was one of the main material supporters of the Burgos government, well beyond the anecdote of the purchase of the Dragón Rapide to transport Franco from the Canary Islands to Morocco. The leading expert in this field, José Ángel Sánchez Asiaín, does not hesitate to refer to March's financial support as one of the elements in the triad of economic factors on which the triumph of the "national" side rested. Nevertheless, due to the Balearic capitalist's monarchist and pro-ally leanings, relations with the Galician dictator in the 1940s were not particularly friendly and cooperative, and at one point he was even threatened with arrest by the regime.

Long stays in Portugal and Switzerland in the Spanish and international post-war period partially reconciled him with the system, and March finally settled in Madrid to lay the last stones of his immense empire - at that time, he was calculated to have the seventh largest fortune in the world.

Of the numerous businesses and companies that March and his efficient team of collaborators knew how to surround themselves with in the various commercial, financial, legal, political and journalistic fields in which he worked, it was perhaps the controversial event of the bankruptcy of Barcelona Traction which brought March to the forefront of the Spanish and European economy of his time. He decided to create the Compañía de Fuerzas Eléctricas de Cataluña (FECSA) in 1951 to acquire the Barcelona Traction company by public auction, and a year later the Francoist state allowed him to incorporate the Barcelona Traction company into his assets. In the midst of international controversy over March's operation, as the ultimate reflection of his financial genius and his very peculiar procedures to achieve the ambitious goals of his business activities, in November 1955 he created the Juan March Foundation, dedicated to the promotion of cultural creation in its various dimensions. The Foundation's work has been successful in most of its projects and is considered exemplary in various aspects. It has managed to offset and neutralize, in large sectors of public opinion, the discredit that the person and deeds of the man who was sometimes referred to in media terms as "the last pirate of the Mediterranean" sometimes generated in it.

Bibl.: R. Garriga, Juan March y su tiempo (Barcelona, Planeta, 1976); B. Díaz Nosty, La irradiació de la March. Díaz Nosty, La irresistible ascensión de Juan March, Madrid, Editorial Sedmay, 1978; A. Puigvert, Mi vida... y otras más, Barcelona, Planeta, 1979; M. Fraga Iribarne, Memoria breve de una vida pública, Barcelona, Editorial Planeta, 1980; J. M. Cuenca Toribio, La Segunda Guerra Mundial, Madrid, Espasa Calpe, 1989; A. Piñeiro, Los March. El precio del honor, Madrid, Ediciones Temas de Hoy, 1991; J. A. Sánchez Asiaín, Economía y finanzas en la Guerra Civil Española (1936-1939), Madrid, Real Academia de la Historia, 1999 (Colección Clave Historial); J. A. Sánchez Asiaín, "La economía española durante la Guerra Civil," in Historia Económica de España, Siglos XIX y XX, Galaxia Gutenberg, Círculo de Lectores, Barcelona, 1999, E. Urreiztieta, Los March. La fortuna silenciosa, Madrid, La Esfera de los Libros, 2008; P. Ferrer Guasp, Juan March. El hombre más misterioso del mundo, Barcelona, Ediciones B, 2008; M. Cabrera, Juan March (1880-1962), Madrid, Marcial Pons, 2011.

José Manuel Cuenca Toribio

* Royal Academy of History (https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/12927/juan-march-ordinas)

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Locatie & Omgeving:

The North of Mallorca also offers a wide selection of charming areas, particularly inland. It has many pretty, yet typical small Mallorcan villages such as Campanet, Buger, Muro or Santa Margarita, which each offer a first hand experience of authentic island life and a taste of the original culture of this enchanting Mediterranean island as well as boasting their own unique characters. There are several alternatives to Pollensa or Alcudia if you want to look for a romantic town house or a secluded country house that's close to the beach. Especially Campanet and Buger each with immediate access to the 2006 created motorway between Palma-Alcudia, provide a further advantage in that it only takes 25 minutes to reach Palma by car.

All information is correct to the best of our knowledge. Errors and prior sale excepted. This prospectus is purely for information purposes. Only the notarized deed of sale is legally binding.