If you’ve ever driven down the winding road to Cala d’en Serra in the north of Ibiza, you’ll know the moment.
You round the bend expecting pristine cliffs, turquoise water and that smug feeling of discovering one of Ibiza’s last untouched coves…and then boom.
A giant concrete skeleton stares back at you like the set of a post-apocalyptic film that ran out of budget in 1973.
Yes, the infamous Cala d’en Serra “mamotreto”, arguably Ibiza’s most famous unfinished building, is finally scheduled for demolition (again). And honestly, it’s about time.
The structure was originally conceived in the 1970s as a holiday village designed by renowned architect Josep Lluís Sert. On paper it probably looked very sophisticated – modernist terraces cascading down the hillside overlooking the sea. In reality, what Ibiza got was a 3,500 m² concrete monument that should in have been named “project abandoned halfway through.”
For decades it has served many purposes: unofficial graffiti gallery, accidental urban-exploration attraction, sunset beer spot for adventurous teenagers, Instagram backdrop for “lost places” influencers. What it has never been is a hotel.
The Consell de Ibiza has now put the demolition out to tender for €1.7 million, with 12 months of work planned with a rough timeline of November 2026 to March 2027.
The goal is not just to knock it down, but to return the hillside to something close to its original natural state. Much of the rubble will be recycled on site to restore terraces and reshape the landscape. So the concrete monster will literally be recycled back into the mountain it interrupted half a century ago.
Poetic, really.
As is usual on the White Isle, there is one small curveball. Before the wrecking balls arrive, Ibiza must first answer a very important question: Are there bats living in the building?
Environmental rules require specialists to check for protected species such as Rhinolophus hipposideros and Rhinolophus escalerai – Mediterranean horseshoe bats.
If bats are discovered, demolition could be delayed, temporary exclusions installed and alternative bat shelters created because even Ibiza bureaucracy agrees on one thing: Bats deserve better housing than a failed 1970s resort hotel.
Ironically, the unfinished building has become a strange kind of landmark. Ask locals about Cala d’en Serra and half will describe it as “the beach with the creepy abandoned hotel.”
It has appeared in countless drone videos, urban-explorer blogs, music videos, questionable sunset selfies and for years people have argued whether it should be demolished, restored, turned into an art space or simply left alone as Ibiza’s accidental Brutalist sculpture.
But the decision is now made. The concrete ghost of Cala d’en Serra is living on borrowed time and assuming everything goes to plan, by late 2027 the hillside above Cala d’en Serra will look very different.
No skeleton. No graffiti corridors. No crumbling balconies. Just cliffs, pine trees and the sea, which is what Ibiza should have had there all along.
Although… there’s still time for one last selfie….
MAN IN SAN AN by Martin Makepeace 