King Felipe VI and Queen Letitzia Host A Royal Reception At Mallorca Palace

THE Spanish King, Felipe VI. and his wife Letizia welcomed around 500 guests in the garden of the Marivent Palace in Palma on Thursday, August 3, together with the Queen Mother, Sofia.

Over the years, the reception has become a fixed date during the royal family’s summer vacation in Mallorca.

Once again, representatives from politics, business, culture, society and the media industry on the Balearic Islands were invited.

The reception took place in front of the palace in Palma’s Cala Major district, which the Spanish royal family has now owned for 50 years.

For security reasons, guests had to park their cars at the nearby naval base, and were then taken to the palace by shuttle bus.

There, the crowd of guests first gathered in front of an adjoining building.

They stood in line as Felipe VI, Letizia and Sofía shook hands with each and every one of them.

Supplied with Mallorcan wines and appetisers by Michelin starred chef, Maca de Castro, the crowd then gathered on the palace’s forecourt, which is lined with tall pine trees.

Surrounded by crowds of people, accompanied by many selfie requests and guarded by members of the royal family security forces, the King, his wife and the Queen Mother walked through the crowd individually.

Letitzia was friendly, likeable, interested and attentive, reported Mallorca Zeitung.

The Marivent Palace was first bequeathed to the Balearic provincial administration by the Greek art collector Ioannes Saridakis, and then 50 years ago to the royal family.

Since then, the royal family has used the property, which Saridakis actually intended as a museum, as a summer residence.

In recent years, the stays of Felipe VI and Letizia at the palace have become shorter and shorter .

The reception was slightly marred by a demand for them to “return to the people”, where a group of demonstrators waved placards saying as such in front of the gates of the palace.