Palma de Mallorca

“ The interior is remarkable for the enormous span of the nave, the widest in Spain. It rises to a height of 147 feet and is sustained by relatively slender columns. The nave terminates in the beautiful Capilla Real, founded in 1282, wherein is the modest tomb of the last King of Mallorca. The wooden gallery running round the wall is strongly suggestive of Saracenic influence. Opening into this chapel are the Capillas de Santa Eulalia, containing a Gothic altar and the tomb of a Bishop of Palma, and San Mateo, in which ends one of the aisles. ”

“ Its design is in nearly all respects of the same kind as those of the Barcelonese churches of the same age; but its plan [348] is very remarkable, as giving, perhaps, the widest span of nave anywhere to be seen in a church with aisles and a clerestory. Or perhaps I ought to limit myself to examples on the mainland, for at Palma in Mallorca the width of the nave of the cathedral seems to be even greater, and the plan is almost exactly the same. ”

“ A spark breaks out on the old Moorish tower as we glide past Porto Pi, some soldiers wave a last goodbye from the earthworks of San Carlos, the darkening mountain slopes recede as we reach the portal of Cala Figuéra—and at last we are clear of the bay of Palma.
A golden moon hangs in the indigo vault above us, and our wake cleaves a shining path straight up to the old white city that is vanishing from our sight. And passing out into the night on a sea of glass we half expect to hear once more the solemn midnight cry—
“Alobado sea el Señor! ”

“ The terms upon which master and servant meet in Majorca—and I fancy all over Spain—are very much freer than with us.
Palma at the end of April is a very different town from the Palma of a few weeks ago; the trees along the Borne are greening fast, and the country is a mass of leafage. The swifts have arrived, and are wheeling and screaming over the town in thousands; the masses of dwarf blue iris by the seashore are over, but the waist-high corn is spangled with poppies and corn daisies, gladioli, and a handsome crimson and yellow scrophularia. ”

“ The streets, as in most Spanish towns, are narrow and shady, often rewarding the curiosity of the passer-by with glimpses of Renaissance patios, graceful balconies, and turret windows. Among the most interesting houses of the Butifarras (big sausages) , as the nobility of the island used to be called, are the Casa de Vivot and the palace of the Counts of Montenegro. But Palma is a living city, and side by side with these{91} dignified memories of the past we find handsome modern buildings such as the Bank of Spain and the Hall of Provincial Deputation. ”

“ The wide plain is wrapped in shimmering shades of pink and violet, and brilliant against the deep cobalt of the Sierra stand out the white houses of the town. Cutting the western horizon in dark silhouette are the wooded slopes of Bellver—the castle arch spanning a glowing fragment of the sunset where the gules and or of Aragon are once more blazoned in the sky. The harbour is a sheet of gold, and across the ever widening stretch of water Palma has already dwindled to a doll’s city, where the great cathedral is the last object on which our eyes linger. ”

“ Then comes the little harbour and tower of Portopi and round the next promontory the lovely bay of Palma, with the capital of the Balearics smiling a welcome to the stranger. The walls that once surrounded the city have been demolished: the turrets that rise above the house-tops are those of the Cathedral and the Exchange (Lonja) . We enter the town through the Water Gate, a building not without majesty, and crowned by a statue of the Blessed Virgin. ”

“ The cobbled streets of the oldest and most aristocratic quarters of Palma resemble ravines, and are barely wide enough to admit of the passage of the heavy two-wheeled carts that come lumbering through, scraping either wall with their axles and compelling foot passengers to seek the shelter of the nearest archway. An oriental atmosphere of mystery hangs about the massive, fortress-like walls of the great houses that tower on either side, turning to the outer world a blank and inscrutable face of reserve that offers not the faintest indication of the life existing within. ”

“ Here upon a small headland below the village we ate our luncheon, among clumps of purple stock and bushes of bright green spurge—devouring the while a week’s budget of letters that Pépé had brought out with him; after which we rejoined our carriage and began the long ascent of the Col that lay between us and Palma. Like a snake does the white road wind in loops up the mountain side; the Pinus maritima clothes the hill slopes to the very summit, but rarely attains an even respectable size. ”

“ Nor does Palma want for wide breathing-spaces and promenades. It has the fine Paseo del Borne and the Boulevards constructed round the bay and on the site of the old fortifications. Close to the landing-stage the new-comer’s attention is first attracted by the Exchange or Lonja. Charles V. on visiting the island for the first time hastened at once to see it, eagerly demanding if it belonged to the Church or to the State, and was visibly relieved on hearing that it was a civil edifice. ”

“ One can, in fact, lie on his back, with face upturned to the soft blue skies and almost go to sleep. Indeed, the astonishing thing seems to be how anyone can sink in this heavy medium. It is so transparent at the entrance of the Bay of Palma, that, during a calm, weeds can be distinctly seen at the depth of forty fathoms, waving at the bottom among the stones and shells.
In the Middle Ages, Majorca suffered much from the inroads of the Barbary pirates. Even now the old custom is kept up of lighting beacons every night all round the island. ”

“ The wheat fields are dripping, the wet air is heavy with the scent of flowering may, and Palma itself is spanned by a bright rainbow. Let it rain! we are back in comfortable quarters once more!
On the 2nd of April we went to spend a few days at Sollér—the one inevitable expedition for all visitors to Palma. By the most direct route the drive only occupies three hours, but it is best to make a détour by way of Valldemósa and Miramár, so as to include the beautiful scenery of the north coast. ”

“ The foreigner who visits the remoter villages of the interior is still looked upon as something of a curiosity; he will have to drive in native carriages, live on native food, and bid a temporary farewell to that cosmopolitan standard of comfort provided for all who travel the world’s highways. But he will at least be sure of one thing—an unfailing welcome by an island race noted for its charming manners.
I think the courtesy of the natives is one of the first things to strike the new-comer in Palma. ”

“ And at midnight the stars look down upon a sleeping city, whose stillness is only broken by the sonorous chant of the watchmen going their rounds with lantern and staff. The familiar cry—so associated with Palma—again rings out beneath our windows:—
“Alobado sea el Señor! ”

“ We have to thank Don Miguel Moragues Pro and Don Joaquim Maria Bover for 192 having edited the histories of Dameto and Mut, with very copious notes. The three thick volumes were published at Palma in 1841, and a fourth volume containing the history by Alemany was promised. Visitors to Palma who take an intelligent interest in the history of the island will desire to possess and to read them. ”

“ The city of Palma is of considerable dimensions, and contains a population of fifty-two thousand persons. Like all modern towns which rise over the ruins of the past, it is uneven and hilly, a peculiarity which adds much to the general picturesqueness of the street scenery. Built on a slope which rises immediately from the sea, and surrounded by the massive stone ramparts of Philip III., it occupies a strong position. The marks of decay, however, are now everywhere visible. The streets are silent, and the walls of palace and fortress are dropping piece-meal into ruin. ”

“ They also must cross and cross again in their cruises, those lines along which your feluccas continually come and go."
José Medina threw up his hands.
"The submarines! Señor, if you listen to the babblers on the quays, you would think that the seas are stiff with them! Schools of them like whales everywhere! Only yesterday Palma rang with the account of one. It pursued a French steamer between Minorca and Mallorca. It spoke to a fishing boat! What did it not do? Señor, there was no submarine yesterday in the channel between Minorca and Mallorca. ”

“ This house could resist a siege--indeed, it was built for that purpose; for the Moorish pirates made raids on the island almost within the memory of living persons.
Such is the Casa d’Erraha--the House of Repose. It stands with its back to the pine slopes, looking peacefully down the valley, over terraces where grow the orange, the almond, the fig, the lemon, the olive; and far below, where the water trickles, the feathery bamboo.
The city of Palma is but a few miles away, in its strong thirteenth-century restriction within high ramparts. ”

“ Majorcan trains are not fashionable in their hours, and it was little after daybreak that we steamed out of the Palma station and glided away through richly cultivated fields of beans and wheat, where pleasant homesteads stood embowered in almond orchards and fat yellow lemons bobbed over the garden walls. As the line approaches the mountains the country becomes wilder and more open ”

“ When Majorca again came into the hands of the legitimate line the ashes of the canonised heroes were placed in an urn and deposited beneath an altar in Palma Cathedral, where they remain to this day; and every succeeding generation hears from childhood up the stirring tale of how the two patriots fought and how they died.
The little oratory of Our Lady of Refuge stands upon the summit of the cliff, and no doubt originated as the chapel of the fortress. ”

“ There are half a dozen excursions 45which visitors to the island rarely fail to make; one is to Sollér, only a day’s expedition by carriage from Palma—though, as it possesses a comfortable little hotel and is in the midst of beautiful scenery, it is a favourite place for a lengthened stay. The old towns of Pollensa and Alcúdia upon the east coast attract a certain number of foreigners every season; and the fame of Arta’s stalactite caves draws thither a large number of sightseers, being easy of reach from the railhead at Manacór. ”

“ The view from this point is worth coming far to see; unrolled like a map at one’s feet, far, far below, is the great southern plain, from the Bay of Palma on the west, where the dark mass of the cathedral still shows just visible above the faint haze enveloping the city, to the glittering Bay of Alcúdia upon the far east coast. All the cities of the plain—Inca, Benisalém, La Puebla, Múro, and Lluchmayór, lie outspread before us. Behind us, range upon range, are the wooded slopes of the Sierra, the topmost peaks still crowned with snow ”

“ There the tourist element and its accompanying ostentation of wealth are the most conspicuous features of the performance. Here, in Palma, all this is wholly lacking, and the carnival has retained its native character to a truly refreshing degree. It is essentially a people’s festival, with hardly a foreigner present. ”

“ The population is mostly engaged in agriculture, and the islands export fruits, oil, leather, and a few cattle, to an annual value altogether of 350,000l, while the imports amount to 210,000l. The land is cultivated mostly by peasant proprietors and metayers in small holdings, and by reason of steady emigration those who remain are fairly prosperous. The people show strong aesthetic tastes, and the art school of Palma is one of the most flourishing of the whole of Spain. The chief towns on Majorca are Palma, on the east coast, of 58,000 inhabitants ”

“ The twelfth century, in the shape of a crumbling Moorish watch-tower, alone greeted us. As we advanced eastward into the Bay of Palma, however, the wild shrubbery melted into plantations of olive, solitary houses of fishermen nestled in the coves, and finally a village, of those soft ochre-tints which are a little brighter than the soil, appeared on the slope of a hill. ”

“ Steam has only been introduced of late years, and up to the first arrival of El Vapor they were comparatively cut off from all the world, its plots and passions, and engrossed in their own quiet industrious pursuits.
Majorca is at present free from the plague of tourists. Scarcely a stranger intrudes, beyond the city of Palma, into the recesses of its woods, mountains, and villages. ”

“ Regard that brown promontory yonder, the easternmost horn of Palma Bay. With permission take my lunette. So; now you cannot fail to see. A ship of the Romans laden with pottery struck there in time past, filled, and went down in deep water. The fishermen often bring up in their nets unbroken pieces from her cargo, crocks and pipkins identical in shape and texture with those the islanders use to-day. Ah, m'sieu', but they are ignorant, these Mallorcans, and happy in their ignorance. Food is so easily gained that none need starve ”

“ Every one agrees that La Palma is almost the most beautiful of the group of seven Fortunate Isles, so it is all the more deeply to be deplored that there is not better communication between the little port of Santa Cruz de la Palma and Teneriffe or Grand Canary. ”

“ Palma, 1, capital of the Balearic Islands (61) , on the Bay of Palma, SW. coast of Majorca; has a Gothic cathedral, a Moorish palace, and a collection of pictures in the old Town Hall; manufactures silks, woollens, and jewellery, and does a busy trade. 2, One of the Canary Islands (39) , 67 m. NW. of Teneriffe; grows sugar, and exports honey, wax, and silk manufactures. ”