Where to Stay in Palma, Comunitat Autònoma de les Illes Balears

What is Palma known for?

Palma is the capital of the Balearic Islands and the largest city on Mallorca. Its fuller name is Palma de Mallorca, and the Arab Baths of Palma de Mallorca are what the Muslim island left standing. Defence shaped the rest.

Bellver Castle, the Royal Palace of La Almudaina and the bastion that gave Es Baluard its name are the buildings the city is known by, and the Consolat de Mar de Palma records the sea business that paid for them. Modern Mallorca answers on the same streets, at the Fundació Miró Mallorca and the Museu Fundació Juan March.

What are the main landmarks in Palma?

Palma's landmark stone runs from defence to devotion. Bellver Castle and the Museo Histórico Militar de San Carlos hold the military end of the list, the Royal Palace of La Almudaina the royal one, and the Arab Baths of Palma de Mallorca the Moorish. Places of worship take over from there.

Església de Sant Nicolau, Església de Sant Jaume de Palma, Església de Santa Clara and the Convent de les Caputxines carry it, while Es Baluard, the Fundació Miró Mallorca and the Museu de Mallorca hold the collections.

What is the history of Palma?

Palma's history is legible in what it built and never cleared away. The Arab Baths of Palma de Mallorca survive from the Muslim centuries, and the Royal Palace of La Almudaina is the royal seat of the Christian ones that followed. Trade paid the bills.

The Consolat de Mar de Palma took its name from the merchants' sea court, the institution that settled the port's disputes. Money went into churches, and the Església de Sant Nicolau, the Església de Sant Jaume de Palma and the Església de Santa Clara went up with the convents beside them, Santa Catalina de Sena and the Convent de les Caputxines among the survivors. Es Baluard preserves a bastion of the city walls, and the Museo Histórico Militar de San Carlos keeps the military record that went with them.

The later city is easier to date by its buildings. The Gran Hotel and Can Casasayas belong to it, the Monument to the victims of the cruiser Baleares records a loss at sea, and the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat now keeps the whole account. Through all of it Palma stayed the capital of the Balearic Islands and the largest city on Mallorca.

Where is Palma?

Palma stands on the south coast of Mallorca, at the head of the Bay of Palma. The bay names the city and shapes it. Palma is the capital of the Balearic Islands, and the archipelago's government and shipping come back to this one shore, which is why the largest city on Mallorca faces the water rather than the interior.

The municipal ground runs well back from the sand, so the city's outer edges are inland rather than more coast.

What is the climate of Palma?

The Mediterranean sets Palma's terms. An island city on the south coast takes long dry summers and a short wet winter, and the sea keeps both ends of that from going extreme. Heat sits in the lanes of the old town, where the stone holds it after dark, while the Bay of Palma stays a few degrees kinder.

Winter turns the city back to its museums.

How do you get to Palma?

Palma is on an island, so every arrival comes by sea or air. The Bay of Palma has taken sea traffic for as long as the city has traded, and the Consolat de Mar de Palma exists because that traffic needed a court. Everything else lands and drives in.

The old town does not reward a car: the lanes around the Royal Palace of La Almudaina and the Església de Sant Jaume de Palma were not cut for them, and they have not widened.