Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sa Llotja
HISTORIC BUILDING
(Plaça de la Llotja; 11am-1.45pm & 5-8.45pm Tue-Sat, 11am-1.45pm Sun)
Gorgeous
15th-century sandstone Gothic Sa Llotja, opposite the waterfront, was built as a mer-
chants' stock exchange and is used for temporary exhibitions, such as the eye-catching
sculpture of British artist Tony Cragg. Designed by Guillem Sagrera, it is the apogee of
civilian Gothic building on the island and was completed in 1450.
Inside, six slender, twisting columns lead to the lofty vaulted ceiling. In each corner of
the building rises a fanciful octagonal tower. The flanks are marked with huge arches,
fine tracery and monstrous-looking gargoyles leaning out overhead.
Passeig d'es Born
STREET
One of Palma's most appealing boulevards, Passeig d'es Born is capped by
Plaça del
Rei Joan Carles I
(named after the present king and formerly after Pope Pius XII), a
traffic roundabout locally known as Plaça de les Tortugues, because of the obelisk placed
on four bronze turtles. On the east side of the avenue, on the corner of Carrer de Jovel-
lanos, the distorted black face of a Moor, complete with white stone turban, is affixed
high on a building.
Known as the
Cap del Moro
(Moor's Head), it represents a Muslim slave who is said
to have killed his master, a chaplain, in October 1731. The slave was executed and his
hand lopped off and reportedly attached to the wall of the house where the crime was
committed. Chronicles claim the withered remains of the hand were still in place, behind
a grille, in 1840.
Casal Solleric
HISTORIC BUILDING
(
www.solleric.org
;
Passeig d'es Born 27; 11am-2pm & 3.30-8.30pm Tue-Sat, 11am-2.30pm Sun)
This grand 18th-century baroque mansion with the typical Palma courtyard of graceful
broad arches and uneven stone paving is at once a cultural centre with temporary exhibi-
tions, bookshop and tourist information office. Displays are usually free and found over a
couple of floors.
Consolat de Mar
HISTORIC BUILDING
(Passeig de Sagrera)
The Consolat de Mar was founded in 1326 as a maritime tribunal. The
present building, one of Mallorca's few examples of (albeit impure) Renaissance design,
