Suryalila Retreat Centre

( the story )

An Andalusian retreat centre with five practice spaces — from a sixty-mat dome to a cob roundhouse in the olive grove — wrapped around a permaculture farm.

where it begins

Suryalila is built around where you practise. The Om Dome takes sixty yogis comfortably, with underfloor heating and cooling and Manduka Pro mats already down. The Ganesha Shala upstairs in the main house holds thirty under a wood-and-beam ceiling. The Moon Shala is a cob roundhouse standing in the olive grove, sized for sixteen. There is a Forest Shala on a wooden platform among the trees, and a Garden of Stillness for sitting. Around all of it runs Danyadara, the centre's permaculture farm and olive plantation, regenerating land that had been farmed hard — and feeding the organic vegetarian kitchen. There is a saltwater pool, massage, and the wide hill country of Cádiz beyond the gate.