An exploration of Mallorca's rich history, from the legendary 17th-century 'dragon' (a preserved crocodile) in a sacred art museum and the Gothic light shows of La Seu Cathedral, to the island's layered past of invaders, pirates, and resilient culture. The piece also highlights stays at three stylish boutique hotels owned by Nybau, showcasing local cuisine and excursions, while noting the island's distinct identity and modern celebrity appeal.
player ready... On Spain’s legend-swept island of Mallorca , an embalmed 17th-century people-gobbling “dragon” flashed a mummified smirk at me. The revered scaly beast — who supposedly once lived in nearby sewers — now honorably rests in of all places, the diocesan Museum of Sacred Art filled with images of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
Next door, in the magnificent 800-year-old La Seu Cathedral, the enormous “Gothic Eye” magically cast bright multi-colored light beams across the interior and worshippers. And up on a pine-forested hill, the rare circular Bellver Castle exposed a brutal past; tortured prisoners had scratched their names on stone walls. I was gadding about Palma, the history-heaped capital of the Balearic Islands that includes Mallorca , Ibiza and two other inhabited islands.
The alluring Mediterranean Sea archipelago is an autonomous province of Spain but it doesn’t feel like the mainland 125 miles away. Fiercely independent, Mallorcans even speak Mallorqui, a dialect of the Catalan language. Eye-grabbing design elements accent the El Llorenc hotel in Palma on the island of Mallorca.
To soak in Mallorca, I stayed in three stylish boutique hotels on different parts of the compact island — in the south, the avant-garde bay-view El Llorenc ideally located in Palma’s honey-hued Old Town; on the formerly pirate-plagued northern coast, the El Vicenc overlooking a tranquil, picture-perfect azure cove; and in the island’s rural center, the Es Figueral Nou, an 18th-century countryside estate in the distant shadow of UNESCO World Heritage-listed mountains. All of these top-tier hotels are owned by the Mallorcan hospitality company Nybau, serve Mallorcan cuisine created by a Mallorcan celebrity chef, and arrange various excursions for guests.
Wide-open agrarian lands and the distant Serra de Tramuntana mountains are seen from Es Figueral Nou hotel on the outskirts of Montuiri. Civilizations are layered here. Over millennia, and after the Phoenicians landed, numerous invaders controlled Mallorca, including the Romans, the Germanic Vandals, and the Byzantines. Muslim Moors ruled the island for 300 years before 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 trade.
“There’s a popular saying here — ‘Mallorcan people always keep behind the rock. ’ They want see if those who arrive are friendly or not,” said my Palma guide Charlotte Miller, as we meandered through a labyrinth of cobbled alleyways.
“Mallorcans want to make sure no one will take away their culture. ” Drac de na Coca, the fearsome dragon of Mallorcan folklore, is displayed in Palma’s Museum of Sacred Art. He’s really a crocodile. That culture cherishes Drac de na Coca.
As the story goes, in the 17th century the dragon nightly terrorized Palma, devouring residents until sword-wielding knight Bartomeu Coch slew it, named it and gifted the dead monster to his fiancée, Na Coca Rossello. By the way, the dragon turned out to be a small Nile crocodile, which may have escaped from a merchant ship. Generations of the noble Rossello clan kept the preserved curiosity in their home, but showed it off to crowds outside every New Year’s Eve.
Ultimately, the family donated Drac de na Coca to the diocesan museum. To pay more homage to Drac, a scary fire-breathing replica is paraded through Palma religious festivals and last year an artist’s floating sculpture of a 10-foot Drac was permanently installed in the lake below La Seu Cathedral. An artist’s sculpture of a 10-foot crocodile — a tribute to the legend Drac de na Coca — floats in the artificial saltwater Parc de la Mar lake in Palma, Mallorca.
Long before Michelle Obama repeatedly vacationed in Mallorca , or Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta-Jones lounged in their luxurious 200-acre Mallorca spread once owned by an Austrian archduke, or Pierce Brosnan, earlier this year in Mallorca to film “MobLand” with Helen Mirren, sipped a “Great Lebowski” vodka cocktail at a chic bistro on Palma’s fanciest avenue, 11th-century VIPs hung out in the Arab Baths. The ancient Arab Baths in Palma are one of the few remaining structures from Moorish rule in Mallorca.
Elites surely gossiped under the skylit dome of the atmospheric arched baths, one of the few remaining Islamic structures from the Moorish empire in Palma. An ancient hotspot for hygiene and hobnobbing, the baths are supported by 12 repurposed Roman-era columns and were likely part of a wealthy Muslim’s manor.
Very conveniently, the Arab Baths and almost everywhere else I explored in Palma were a quick stroll from my hotel El Llorenc, which also sits behind the defensive medieval walls in the old quarters. Acknowledging the city’s Moorish past, the 33-room adults-only hotel integrates a unique geometric Arab star pattern reminiscent of ancient Islamic latticework; I saw it on floors, doors, ceilings, the tile trim of my bathtub, my towels, my duvet and dresser drawers.
El Llorenc also features cool black-and-white photos from the 20th 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. In a nod to Palma’s past, a signature Arabic star pattern is found throughout the El Llorenc hotel in Mallorca. During construction, before El Llorenc’s opening in 2019, a huge 11th-century Arab oven was discovered underneath the property.
“We had to stop work for six months while the archeologist came,” said Nybau’s CEO Rubén Zamora, as I dove into a round potato-onion Spanish omelet at breakfast. The cylindrical clay oven is “the only one ever found in Palma,” Zamora noted, and was used to produce ceramics at what was then an Islamic pottery.
Scholars can’t agree if the Roman Bridge in Pollenca was built by Romans or much later in the 14th century. Regardless, it’s quite picturesque. The enchanting medieval streets of Palma are steeped in Mallorca’s history and culture. The Palma History Museum inside Bellver Castle showcases everything from ancient coins to Greek and Roman sculptures.
Now very tranquil, Pollenca, in Mallorca’s north, has a violent legacy of pirate attacks. After climbing a tight, spiral “stairway to heaven,” visitors can walk under stone flying buttresses on the rooftop terrace of La Seu Cathedral in Palma. Scholars can’t agree if the Roman Bridge in Pollenca was built by Romans or much later in the 14th century. Regardless, it’s quite picturesque.
Visitors can ogle the glass-encased artifact in the Michelin-starred Dins restaurant on El Llorenc’s ground floor, where Mallorcan chef and TV personality Santi Taura concocts his take on traditional Mallorcan recipes that date back hundreds of years. Among the haute cuisine: Roasted black suckling pig, an indigenous breed that has roamed Mallorca for 5,000 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 started crafting his own dinnerware to connect with the hotel’s roots. Bellver Castle, in Mallorca’s capital city of Palma, is one of the few circular castles in Europe and touts a twisted history. History is served up throughout Palma.
The 700-year-old circular Bellver Castle is an architectural gem, briefly used as royal residence, mostly as a ghastly political and military prison over six centuries, and now a museum of Roman and other relics. I had heebie-jeebies standing in the fortress courtyard where guards executed prisoners by firing squads. Other inmates etched pleas on walls before they starved or froze to death in a notorious dark dungeon nicknamed “the pot.
” Beams of color from a stained glass window flood the interior of La Seu Cathedral, where two ancient Mallorcan kings are entombed. Back in town, inside Palma’s majestic Gothic landmark La Seu, spellbinding rainbows of color flooded down on the nave, and flying buttresses exquisitely embellished the walkable roof terrace.
The spired cathedral, on the site of a former mosque, houses one of the world’s largest rose windows , a 42-foot-wide,1,236-piece stained glass that converts the sun’s rays into a brilliant kaleidoscope. Mallorca has an age-old affection for sweets, based on homemade recipes. These goodies were in the popular Forn des Teatre bakery, founded in the 19th century in Palma’s old quarters.
Meanwhile, across from the church on the lake’s promenade, a boy bounced a ball against a vibrant ceramic mural designed by the late illustrious artist and Palma resident Joan Miró. And in the Santa Clara Monastery, cloistered nuns baked and sold sweets —- such as Mallorca’s hallowed ensaimada pastries — just as they have for centuries.
Still following tradition, brides-to-be bring a dozen eggs to the nuns so they’ll pray for sunny weather on the wedding day. A mural designed by famous artist Joan Miró is located along the promenade of Parc del la Mar in Palma. Miró was a longtime resident of the city. The small resort town of Cala Sant Vicenc is known for its aquamarine coves on Mallorca’s northern coast.
Just 50 minutes from busy Palma, I entrancingly gazed at an idyllic, shimmery turquoise cove ringed by dramatic jagged limestone peaks soaring from the water and harboring a lone sailboat in its midst. Awaiting sunset, I was planted in the rooftop restaurant of the El Vicenc hotel, dipping carob bread into chef Taura’s branded bottled olive oil from Mallorcan Mallorquina olives and washing it down with a glass of red wine from Mallorca’s native callet grape.
Set along the coast, El Vicenc’s lobby gives off a fun mid-century and beach vibe. Wild goats grazed on steep rocky hillsides around the bend from El Vicenc . With such natural beauty, this northern area of Mallorca draws hikers and cyclists For history, the nearby golden sandstone town of Pollenca literally packs a pirate punch.
Every Aug. 2, locals ferociously reenact a pivotal 1550 battle when hero Joan Mas jumped out of his home’s window and rallied sleeping locals to victoriously fight 1,500 Turkish pirates.
“He was yelling, ‘Pollenca, wake up! The pirates are coming! ’” my guide Toni Gomez enthused as we ambled down the charming slender street, Carrer de Joan Mas. At El Vicenc hotel on Mallorca’s northern coast, meals come with a stellar view.
A couple weeks before the La Patrona festival, Pollenca residents cast votes to elect the chosen candidate to play Mas during the raucous melee. On “combat” day, with cannons booming, hundreds of people dressed as Christians in white pajamas hoist sticks and shields while hundreds of pirates, many with painted faces, wave wood swords. Weapons clash and staged fights get intense.
“The stores have to board up their shop windows because it’s so crazy,” said Gomez, himself a pirate. “It’s strange nobody has ever gotten hurt. ” The pilgrimage Calvari Steps path in Pollenca has 365 steps representing each day of the year, in addition to 14 stationed crosses. I soon consumed a Mallorcan speciality — orange blossom ice cream — in the Placa Major plaza where 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 each day of the year and leading to a tiny chapel. Afterward, I dropped by the studio of Pollenca artist Toni Font; his striking abstract paintings and Mallorca landscape photos adorn all three Nybau hotels.
“For me, Mallorca is a big garden,” he said. The chic spa at El Llorenc in Palma offers a variety of treatments, such as Essential Shock 3D Collagen and Ritual Diamond Life Infusion. Font surely meant my final stop. When I was at El Llorenc in Palma, recorded sounds of tweeting birds greeted guests entering the spa to, for instance, be exfoliated by Damascus rose and diamond powder.
About 40 minutes away, real birds melodiously chirped and trilled outside its sister hotel, Es Figueral Nou, an 18th-century finca and former fig plantation set among vast agricultural fields. Hypnotically serene, the hotel is a relaxing base for hikers and cyclists traversing the UNESCO-recognized Serra de Tramuntana mountains. Historic windmills, such as this one, dot the rural village of Montuiri in Mallorca’s agricultural heartland.
Instead, I trudged up to the medieval hilltop village of Montuiri, a quiet authentic enclave where elderly men gathered to chat in the town square at 5 p.m. and an annual festival’s headliner is a fanged devil. High above expansive farmlands, I found several of Montuiri’s renowned antiquated windmills that in the 17th century ground grain into flour to make the crucial staple, bread.
On this timeless island, history lurked around every bend.
Mallorca Palma Drac De Na Coca La Seu Cathedral Bellver Castle Arab Baths Boutique Hotels Nybau Mallorcan Culture Balearic Islands Travel
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