It's Pou Bo, the bar in Palma where Franco's death was danced

PalmIn 1974, and suddenly and unexpectedly, Climent Picornell, Guillermo Frontera and Aldo Spanhi joined forces to create the bar Es Pou Bo, an establishment in Genoa that was only open for two years, but became a meeting place for Mallorca's cultural, progressive, and anti-Franco world. Its opening was as surprising and unexpected as its closure; from one day to the next, the partners decided to abandon the project, and Es Pou Bo, a refuge for activists, marginalized artists, the wounded, and progressives, disappeared.

This is how one of the founding partners, Climent Picornell, explains it. He acknowledges that the work "was very demanding" and that their professional careers forced them to abandon this project, as it was impossible to balance them. "Guillermo Frontera and I took turns spending nights behind the bar while we had other jobs and projects in progress, and there came a point where we couldn't live like that," explains Picornell.

Es Pou Bo didn't look like a bar, but rather like a large, traditional Mallorcan house. In fact, the name of the establishment was the same as their house before it became a bar. Wide sofas, marble coffee tables, wicker and bova chairs, antique furniture... the owners managed to create a magical atmosphere that offered customers "familiarity, freedom, and trust," explains a regular. The bar was created as a cultural attraction and hosted numerous exhibitions, concerts, recitals, and literary presentations. It hosted Miquel Barceló's first exhibition, one of Maria del Mar Bonet's first concerts, and presentations of works by the writer Carme Riera, among others.

Es Pou Bo also became a refuge for Mallorcan anti-Francoists, where they would meet after their clandestine meetings. The surge in this following was such that on the night Franco died, many customers gathered to celebrate his death. "We gave champagne to the guests and danced and partied until the wee hours," explains Picornell. The member also recalls that "I was terrified that the governor at the time, the far-right Carlos de Meer, would show up and send a guerrilla group after us."

Celestí Alomar, a regular and loyal customer of Es Pou Bo, says the bar was "a symbol of generational rupture, of rebellion against the old society and stereotypes." "It was a time when young people had a rebellious spirit and wanted to break with the traditional and old model of society, and Es Pou Bo was a refuge and a space where we could express that desire for rupture and change," he says.

Es Pou Bo also offered food, but in a peculiar way. "We only had one dish every day and bread with olive oil. If you didn't like what we had, you couldn't have dinner," Picornell humorously recalls. The partner also emphasizes that they had a very short but "high-quality" menu and that one of their strengths was the wine cellar. "We had a great list of very good Mallorcan wines," he emphasizes.

All in all, the bar became a meeting point where customers knew what they would find and where different sectors of Mallorca's cultural and progressive world interacted. "Painters knew they could meet other painters, writers knew they could meet writers, and anti-fascists knew they could meet anti-fascists. It was a very healthy and very family-like atmosphere where freedom was always present, something that wasn't common at that time," Picornell recalls. "Occasionally, some random people who hadn't found a spot in other bars in the area would come in, but our clientele was very loyal," he says.

Alomar recalls that he often went to the bar alone. "I would take my two horses and show up there, without having arranged to meet anyone, but you knew you'd always find people. It was a space of trust and security during Franco's regime, and we had that freedom that we couldn't have in traditional bars on the same street."

Another notable fact is that the clientele was 100% local. At the time when the boom Es Pou Bo became a "refuge" for locals. "We didn't mix like you would find tourists in any establishment; it was a bar for locals, with the concerns, demands, and worries of a Spain struggling to emerge from Francoism," he says.

The bar where Es Pou Bo was located in the 1970s is now the well-known Sa Ximbomba pizzeriawhich opened just three years after the establishment of Climent Picornell, Guillem Frontera and Aldo Spanhi closed and which still maintains part of the aesthetic essence of that place and furniture and decorations from that time.

The bar responds:

What music used to play?

— Californian music, hippie music, countercultural music... there was also a lot of French music and Catalan rock.

What drink was most requested by customers?

— Mainly gin and tonics, but they also ordered a lot of wine.

What would you say was the brand of the bar?

— The cultural appeal, exhibitions, recitals, concerts, presentations...

Any anecdote that makes you laugh when you remember it?

— There was an oven right next to the bar, and some nights, at one or two in the morning, the baker would show up with a penis-shaped loaf of bread. I still remember cutting off the testicles and distributing them to his customers.