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On Spain’s legend-swept island of Mallorca, an embalmed Seventeenth-century people-gobbling “dragon” flashed a mummified smirk at me. The revered scaly beast — who supposedly as soon as lived in close by sewers — now honorably rests in of all locations, the diocesan Museum of Sacred Art crammed with pictures of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
Next door, within the magnificent 800-year-old La Seu Cathedral, the big “Gothic Eye” magically solid vivid multi-colored mild beams throughout the inside and worshippers. And up on a pine-forested hill, the uncommon round Bellver Castle uncovered a brutal previous; tortured prisoners had scratched their names on stone partitions.
I used to be gadding about Palma, the history-heaped capital of the Balearic Islands that features Mallorca (the place Palma is located), Ibiza and two different inhabited islands. The alluring Mediterranean Sea archipelago is an autonomous province of Spain nevertheless it doesn’t really feel just like the mainland 125 miles away. Fiercely impartial, Mallorcans even communicate Mallorqui, a dialect of the Catalan language.
To soak in Mallorca, I stayed in three trendy boutique motels on completely different components of the compact island — within the south, the avant-garde bay-view El Llorenc ideally situated in Palma’s honey-hued Old Town; on the previously pirate-plagued northern coast, the El Vicenc overlooking a tranquil, picture-perfect azure cove; and within the island’s rural heart, the Es Figueral Nou, an 18th-century countryside property within the distant shadow of UNESCO World Heritage-listed mountains. All of those top-tier motels are owned by the Mallorcan hospitality firm Nybau, serve Mallorcan delicacies created by a Mallorcan superstar chef, and organize numerous excursions for company.
Civilizations are layered right here. Over millennia, and after the Phoenicians landed, quite a few invaders managed Mallorca, together with the Romans, the Germanic Vandals, and the Byzantines. Muslim Moors dominated the island for 300 years earlier than Christian forces from Catalonia waged a bloody siege in 1229. Later on, plundering Barbary pirates raided Mallorca, looting possessions, slaughtering inhabitants and capturing others for the slave commerce.
“There’s a popular saying here — ‘Mallorcan people always keep behind the rock.’ They want see if those who arrive are friendly or not,” stated my Palma information Charlotte Miller, as we meandered via a labyrinth of cobbled alleyways. “Mallorcans want to make sure no one will take away their culture.”
That tradition cherishes Drac de na Coca. As the story goes, within the Seventeenth century the dragon nightly terrorized Palma, devouring residents till sword-wielding knight Bartomeu Coch slew it, named it and gifted the useless monster to his fiancée, Na Coca Rossello. By the way in which, the dragon turned out to be a small Nile crocodile, which can have escaped from a service provider ship. Generations of the noble Rossello clan saved the preserved curiosity of their residence, however confirmed it off to crowds outdoors each New Year’s Eve. Ultimately, the household donated Drac de na Coca to the diocesan museum. To pay extra homage to Drac, a scary fire-breathing reproduction is paraded via Palma spiritual festivals and final 12 months an artist’s floating sculpture of a 10-foot Drac was completely put in within the lake beneath La Seu Cathedral.
Digging into historical past
Long earlier than Michelle Obama repeatedly vacationed in Mallorca (lately with daughters Malia and Sasha), or Michael Douglas and spouse Catherine Zeta-Jones lounged of their luxurious 200-acre Mallorca unfold as soon as owned by an Austrian archduke, or Pierce Brosnan, earlier this 12 months in Mallorca to movie “MobLand” with Helen Mirren, sipped a “Great Lebowski” vodka cocktail at a classy bistro on Palma’s fanciest avenue, Eleventh-century VIPs frolicked within the Arab Baths.
Elites absolutely gossiped beneath the skylit dome of the atmospheric arched baths, one of many few remaining Islamic buildings from the Moorish empire in Palma. An historic hotspot for hygiene and hobnobbing, the baths are supported by 12 repurposed Roman-era columns and had been doubtless a part of a rich Muslim’s manor.
Very conveniently, the Arab Baths and nearly all over the place else I explored in Palma had been a fast stroll from my lodge El Llorenc, which additionally sits behind the defensive medieval partitions within the outdated quarters. Acknowledging town’s Moorish previous, the 33-room adults-only lodge (nightly charges from $240) integrates a novel geometric Arab star sample paying homage to historic Islamic latticework; I noticed it on flooring, doorways, ceilings, the tile trim of my bathtub, my towels, my quilt and dresser drawers. El Llorenc additionally options cool black-and-white images from the twentieth century, palm leaf-print carpeting, and a whimsical rooftop terrace replete with an infinity pool, fringed aqua parasols, sea view, and vanilla vodka Porn-Star Martinis.
During building, earlier than El Llorenc’s opening in 2019, an enormous Eleventh-century Arab oven was found beneath the property. “We had to stop work for six months while the archeologist came,” stated Nybau’s CEO Rubén Zamora, as I dove right into a spherical potato-onion Spanish omelet at breakfast. (It was like a yummy fats latke.) The cylindrical clay oven is “the only one ever found in Palma,” Zamora famous, and was used to provide ceramics at what was then an Islamic pottery.
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Scholars can’t agree if the Roman Bridge in Pollenca was constructed by Romans or a lot later within the 14th century. Regardless, it’s fairly picturesque. (Photo by Norma Meyer)
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Scholars can’t agree if the Roman Bridge in Pollenca was constructed by Romans or a lot later within the 14th century. Regardless, it’s fairly picturesque. (Photo by Norma Meyer)
Visitors can ogle the glass-encased artifact within the Michelin-starred Dins restaurant on El Llorenc’s floor flooring, the place Mallorcan chef and TV persona Santi Taura concocts his tackle conventional Mallorcan recipes that date again a whole lot of years. (“We cook history,” is his motto.) Among the haute delicacies: Roasted black suckling pig, an indigenous breed that has roamed Mallorca for five,000 years, accompanied by a “medieval” cream sauce. All the fare comes on plates and in bowls handmade by Taura in his ceramics workshop; after the Arab oven was unearthed, Taura began crafting his personal dinnerware to attach with the lodge’s roots.
History is served up all through Palma. The 700-year-old round Bellver Castle is an architectural gem, briefly used as royal residence, principally as a ghastly political and navy jail over six centuries, and now a museum of Roman and different relics. I had heebie-jeebies standing within the fortress courtyard the place guards executed prisoners by firing squads. Other inmates etched pleas on partitions earlier than they starved or froze to demise in a infamous darkish dungeon nicknamed “the pot.”
Back on the town, inside Palma’s majestic Gothic landmark La Seu, spellbinding rainbows of colour flooded down on the nave, and flying buttresses exquisitely embellished the walkable roof terrace. The spired cathedral, on the location of a former mosque, homes one of many world’s largest rose home windows (the “Gothic Eye”), a 42-foot-wide,1,236-piece stained glass that converts the solar’s rays into an excellent kaleidoscope.
Meanwhile, throughout from the church on the lake’s promenade, a boy bounced a ball towards a vibrant ceramic mural designed by the late illustrious artist and Palma resident Joan Miró. And within the Santa Clara Monastery, cloistered nuns baked and offered sweets —- akin to Mallorca’s hallowed ensaimada pastries — simply as they’ve for hundreds of years. Still following custom, brides-to-be deliver a dozen eggs to the nuns so that they’ll pray for sunny climate on the marriage day.
Shiver me timbers!
Just 50 minutes from busy Palma, I entrancingly gazed at an idyllic, shimmery turquoise cove ringed by dramatic jagged limestone peaks hovering from the water and harboring a lone sailboat in its midst. Awaiting sundown, I used to be planted within the rooftop restaurant of the El Vicenc lodge, dipping carob bread (carob bushes are plentiful in Mallorca) into chef Taura’s branded bottled olive oil from Mallorcan Mallorquina olives and washing it down with a glass of pink wine from Mallorca’s native callet grape.
Wild goats grazed on steep rocky hillsides across the bend from El Vicenc (charges from $240). With such pure magnificence, this northern space of Mallorca attracts hikers and cyclists (Tour de France contenders prepare in Mallorca) For historical past, the close by golden sandstone city of Pollenca actually packs a pirate punch. Every Aug. 2, locals ferociously reenact a pivotal 1550 battle when hero Joan Mas jumped out of his residence’s window and rallied sleeping locals to victoriously battle 1,500 Turkish pirates. “He was yelling, ‘Pollenca, wake up! The pirates are coming!’” my information Toni Gomez enthused as we ambled down the charming slender avenue, Carrer de Joan Mas.
A pair weeks earlier than the La Patrona pageant, Pollenca residents solid votes to elect the chosen candidate to play Mas throughout the raucous melee. On “combat” day, with cannons booming, a whole lot of individuals dressed as Christians in white pajamas hoist sticks and shields whereas a whole lot of pirates, many with painted faces, wave wooden swords. Weapons conflict and staged fights get intense. “The stores have to board up their shop windows because it’s so crazy,” stated Gomez, himself a pirate. “It’s strange nobody has ever gotten hurt.”
I quickly consumed a Mallorcan speciality — orange blossom ice cream — within the Placa Major plaza the place eternally buried Muslims had been excavated from graves. Then I ascended Pollenca’s iconic Calvari Steps, a cypress-frocked pilgrimage route of 365 stone steps representing every day of the 12 months and resulting in a tiny chapel. Afterward, I dropped by the studio of Pollenca artist Toni Font; his hanging summary work and Mallorca panorama images adorn all three Nybau motels. “For me, Mallorca is a big garden,” he stated.
Font absolutely meant my ultimate cease. When I used to be at El Llorenc in Palma, recorded sounds of tweeting birds greeted company getting into the spa to, as an illustration, be exfoliated by Damascus rose and diamond powder. About 40 minutes away, actual birds melodiously chirped and trilled outdoors its sister lodge, Es Figueral Nou, an 18th-century finca and former fig plantation set amongst huge agricultural fields. Hypnotically serene, the lodge (nightly from $220) is a calming base for hikers and cyclists traversing the UNESCO-recognized Serra de Tramuntana mountains. (And when your quads ache, attempt the spa’s “Light Legs” therapeutic massage.)
Instead, I trudged as much as the medieval hilltop village of Montuiri, a quiet genuine enclave the place aged males gathered to speak within the city sq. at 5 p.m. and an annual pageant’s headliner is a fanged satan. High above expansive farmlands, I discovered a number of of Montuiri’s famend antiquated windmills that within the Seventeenth century floor grain into flour to make the essential staple, bread. On this timeless island, historical past (and maybe a dragon) lurked round each bend.
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its unique location you’ll be able to go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.ocregister.com/2026/05/27/travel-history-comes-alive-on-magical-mallorca/
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