Palma: the cathedral and the old town: a self-guided walk

By Alleytale

Roman, Moorish and Aragonese capital

Palma was Roman, then Moorish, then Aragonese, and each took over what the last had built: a fortress became a royal palace, a mosque became a cathedral and a parish church, and an old gate still marks the line of the Roman streets.

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The stops

1. 1Parc de la Mar

   Before the motorway, the sea reached the foot of Palma's old wall, and visitors arriving by boat saw the cathedral reflected in it. The big salt-water lake here stands in for that sea, and the cathedral still rises above it. The park was officially opened on 12 October 1984.

   

2. 2La Llotja

   Guillem Sagrera built this Gothic hall between 1426 and 1452 for the city's merchants, who had the king's leave since 1409 to have a college of their own, and it also served as the seat of the island's government. Inside, six twisting columns with no bases or capitals rise like palm trees. Over the east door an angel holds a banner naming him defender of merchandise, and Sagrera left for Naples in 1447 after a lawsuit, so the decoration was never finished.

   

3. 3Consolat de Mar

   The Consolat de Mar was a medieval court for maritime trade. In 1326, under James III of Majorca, two consuls of the sea were named to settle disputes between merchants, shipmasters and sailors. The present building dates from the 16th century, with a Plateresque loggia of five arches, and it has housed the presidency of the Balearic Islands since 1983.

   

4. 4Hort del Rei

   The king's garden began as the orchard of the Almudaina palace, with fruit trees, vegetables and medicinal plants. The gardens you see date from 1966, when Gabriel Alomar designed them after the water games and plantings of Arab gardens. Look for the old arch over the swan pond: it is probably Arab and led from the fortress to where the ship waited, because the sea once came in here.

   

5. 5Royal Palace of La Almudaina

   This began as an Arab fortress, called the Zuda at the time of the conquest. Rebuilding it as a royal palace began in 1305, in the reign of James II of Majorca, and the work was carried out between 1309 and 1314. The monarchs of Majorca, Aragon and Spain held court here in turn. It is still one of the official residences of the Spanish royal family.

   

6. 6Palma Cathedral

   The city, then called Madina Mayurqa, was conquered in 1229, and work on the cathedral began on the site of its largest mosque; building went on into the 17th century. Its east rose window, nearly 14 meters across, is the second-largest Gothic rose window in the world. Antoni Gaudí began overseeing a restoration here in 1903, and Miquel Barceló redid a chapel between 2001 and 2006.

   

7. 7Museu de Mallorca

   This palace was put together in the 16th century from several houses, and it is known as Ca la Gran Cristiana after Catalina Zaforteza i de Togores, who lived here in the 1800s. In its central courtyard archaeologists found the remains of what is considered the first Muslim house identified on the island, and later digging revealed an Almoravid pottery workshop. The Museu de Mallorca opened to the public here in 1976.

   

8. 8Arab Baths

   These baths date from the 11th century and are one of the few traces of Muslim architecture left in Mallorca. Only the central hot room survives, entered by a horseshoe-arched doorway, with a brick dome pierced by skylights over twelve columns. The many capitals suggest pieces of older buildings were reused, and one account says the columns came from an earlier Roman building.

   

9. 9Basilica of Sant Francesc

   Work on this Franciscan church began in 1281 and took a hundred years just to complete the vault. In a side chapel lies the tomb of Ramon Llull, with a recumbent statue of the philosopher and writer who was born in Palma. The Gothic cloister next door, built between the 14th and 16th centuries, was declared a National Monument in 1881.

   

10. 10Church of Santa Eulàlia

    This was one of the first four parishes of Mallorca after the Catalan conquest, built over a mosque and already listed as a parish in 1236. James II of Majorca was crowned king here on 12 September 1276. Jules Verne used it in his 1895 novel Clovis Dardentor, where the hero's wagon, drawn by bolting mules, bursts in on a service.

    

11. 11Arc de l'Almudaina

    This gate once linked the outside of the Roman city with its northern main street, the decumanus, which is today's Carrer de l'Almudaina. The arch is neither purely Roman nor Islamic and is probably a rebuilding of the Roman gate, with major works in the 14th century. The Romans had founded the city of Palma by 123 BC, and the name Almudaina comes from the Arabic al-Mudayna.

    

12. 12Plaça de Cort

    From 1249 the city's jurats met in the old Hospital of Sant Andreu, where the town hall's main building now stands, and the square is kilometre zero for the island's main roads. The town hall's Baroque façade, built between 1649 and 1680, is crowned by an enormous eave that juts out three meters. Almost in the middle of the square stands an olive tree moved here in 1989 from Pollença and estimated to be over 600 years old.

    

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