Palma, Spain
Palma de Mallorca is the major city and port in the island of Majorca and capital city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of the island on the Bay of Palma. As of the 2003 census, the population of the city of Palma proper was 367,277, and the population of the entire urban area was estimated to be 462,010, ranking as the 12th-largest urban area of Spain. Almost half of the total population of Majorca live in Palma.
The archipelago of Cabrera, though widely separated from Palma proper, is administratively considered part of the municipality.
Its airport, Son Sant Joan, is one of the busiest in Europe.
The Marivent Palace was offered by the city to the then Prince Juan Carlos I of Spain. The royals have since spent their summer holidays in Palma.
History of Palma
Palma (Palmaria) was founded by the Romans on the remains of a Talayotic settlement, on and around the area of the cathedral and Royal Palace.
The Moors conquered the island in 902, and renamed the city Medina Mayurka. The city had numerous mosques, bath houses and gardens, and was regarded on par with Seville, Toledo and Córdoba.
Catalan-Aragonese forces took the city after a 3-month siege in 1229. When conquered, James I renamed it as Ciutat de Mallorca and created a municipal government, Universitat de la Ciutat i Regne de Mallorca (University of the City and Kingdom of Majorca), which comprised the whole island.
The city prospered most greatly when shared the capitality of the Kingdom of Majorca with Perpinyŕ in the 13th and 14th centuries. Many of the most noted historic buildings in the city date from this period and show the characteristic Gothic style, notably the cathedral (La Seu) (built from 1230 to 1600) and the mixed Moorish-Spanish style of the Palau de l'Almudaina.
As a busy port on the Mediterranean, the Consulat del Mar was built in 1325. Palma was known as a leading center for maritime cartography.
When Spanish Inquisition arrived, persecuted Jews were sentenced and burnt in the Fogo dels Jueus/Xuetes (Burning of the Jews).
In the 18th century, after Crown of Aragon defeat in the War of Spanish Succession, the signature of the Decretos de Nueva Planta modified the government of the Island and separated it from the municipal government of the City. This was then again renamed to present-day Palma.
The first regular ferry link to the Spanish mainland was established in 1837, and the first railway on the island in 1875.
The city is now seat of the government for the Balearic Islands.
Copyright (c)2006 Todd Hemming. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
