Majorca

Few Mediterranean holiday spots are as often and as unfairly maligned as Majorca. The island is commonly perceived as little more than sun, party and crowded holiday resorts – so much so that there’s a long-standing Spanish joke about a mythical fifth Balearic island called Majorca instead of the original Spanish Mallorca, inhabited by an estimated eight million tourists a year. However, this image, spawned by the helter-skelter development of the 1960s, takes no account of Majorca’s beguiling diversity. It’s true that there are sections of coast where high-rise hotels and shopping centers are continuous, wedged

beside and upon one another and broken only by a dual carriageway to more of the same. But the spread of development, even after fifty years is surprisingly limited, essentially confined to the Bay of Palma, a thirty-kilometer strip flanking the island capital, and a handful of mega-resorts notching the east coast.

Elsewhere, things are very different. Palma itself, the Balearic’s one real city, is a bustling, historic place whose grand mansions and magnificent Gothic cathedral defy the expectations of many visitors. And so does the northwest coast, where the rearing peaks of the rugged Serra de Tramuntana harbor beautiful cove beaches, a pair of intriguing monasteries at Valldemossa and Lluc, and a string of delightful old towns - Deià, Sóller and Pollença – as well as the picturesque villages of Biniaraix and Fornalutx. There’s a startling variety and physical beauty to the land, too, which, along with the mildness of the climate, has drawn tourists to visit and well-heeled expatriates to settle here since the nineteenth century, including artists and writers of many descriptions, from Robert Graves to Roger McGough.

Palma de Majorca

Palma, the capital of the Balearics since their re-establishment in 1983, has become a cosmopolitan commercial hub of over 300,000 people. The new self-confidence is plain to see in the city center, a vibrant and urbane place that is akin to the big cities of the Spanish mainland – and a world away from the heaving tourist enclaves of the surrounding bay. There’s still a long way to go, but the center now presents a splendid ensemble of lively shopping areas, mazy lanes and refurbished old buildings, all enclosed by what remains of the old city walls and their replacement boulevards. This geography encourages downtown Palma to look into itself and away from the sea, even though its harbor – now quarantined by the main highway – has always been the city’s economic lifeline. Indeed, arriving here by sea, Palma is still beautiful

and impressive, with the grand bulk of the cathedral towering above the old town and the remnants of the medieval walls. In these are encapsulated much of the city’s and island’s history: Moorish control from the ninth to the thirteenth century, reconquest by Jaume I of Aragón and a meteoric rise to wealth and prominence in the fifteenth century as the main port of call between Europe and Africa.