Mallorca :: Comparisson reports

"Coming from the Moll, entering through a place where the old Porta del Moll once was, we still see a part of the cut wall to the right and the remains of a bastion on which the Provinciales Barracks is. A wide road carries on, the right sidewalk lined with plane trees. The street is known today as Carrer de la Marina, though it used to be called Carrer de La Reina. Where it starts, to the right, is the Palace Cavalry barracks followed by the Hort del Rei gardens surrounded by an iron gate. There are only modern houses with balconies on the left. Their ground floors are occupied by numerous sail workshops and warehouses. Carrer del Conquistador street climbs up, to the right and in front of the Born, covering the old dry creek bed. In the angle formed by these two streets is a garden, called La Glorieta, where thujas, pagoda and eucalyptus trees grow. At the start of the Born Boulevard is where the monument to the Queen was raised in 1860.

We return to the Born. The boulevard is lined on both sides by stone benches, grouped together two by two though separated by a gas streetlamp. Some of the buildings have large eaves, but they are generally simple with narrow eaves, particularly those on the right. On the left is the Treasury building, shaded by some trees. On the corner of Carrer de Sant Feliu is the Suredas’ home with a type of three-story tower, beautiful lancet arches in the windows and other double-arch “coronelles”, unfortunately destroyed in part. On the facade facing the street on the top floor are four “coronelles” windows. The rest are modern. Two of these “coronelles” have fine and elegant columns with capitals decorated with foliage and supported on three small arches. On the entrance are the family’s coats of arms. The patio has been modernized, the arch in the entryway conserving two beautiful and well-worked capitals. At the foot of the staircase we see the same capitals mentioned above and, on both sides of the stairs, the refrain: “Subir o morir” (Up or die). On the same Carrer de Sant Feliu street and in front of the previous house is the Safortesas’ home, nicknamed the “House of Austria” for the family’s manifest support for the Archduke of Austria during the War of Spanish Succession. The house’s eave, with double beams, is supported in part on octagonal columns forming square windows and, in part, half-point arches over the windows.

Until very recently, the Born only reached up to the Safortesas’ house, that is, it was approximately half the size it is today. The idea of expanding it and absorbing the space with the monument to the Queen belongs to Juan Bautista Billon, First Deputy Mayor.

To the right, embedded in one of the buildings is a large marble slab decorated with flowers and fruit and bearing the name “Plaza de la Constitución”, the official name of the boulevard though never used in common conversation. A short boulevard with trees of heaven and chestnut trees prolongs the Born somewhat to Carrer de la Unió street. In the center of this boulevard is the Fuente de La Princesa (“Princess’ Fountain”), an obelisk supported on four turtles. The people thus refer to this fountain as the Font de ses Tortugues (Turtle Fountain). At the base are two water taps, and we can read the following inscription on its anterior side:

A la Jura

De la Princesa

Isabel Luisa

El

Ayuntamiento

De Palma

En XXIV Julio de MDCCCXXXIII

(As Pledge to Princess Isabel Luisa, Palma Town Hall, on July 24^th, 1833)

Around this fountain, are four stone benches forming a circle. Other than that, Plaça de la Constitución offers few other notable features. To the right, there are only modern buildings where some cafés have been opened; to the left is the Marquis of Bellpuig’s house with a broad, open and somewhat pretty gallery supported on thin pillars.

Carrer de la Unió street used to be called Carrer del Príncep (Prince Street). It has some young plane trees planted on the right side, that is, towards the east. Its building are generally modern except for the Brondos’ house, painted in pink and on the corner of the street with the same name. The eave is supported on a series of Salomonic columns. The entrance faces Brondo Street. The portal consists of a half-point arch with large keystones. The small patio has a terrace with a coffered ceiling. It’s separated from the staircase by two beautiful diminished arches. On the base of the terrace we see the Brondos’ coat of arms. The oldest and most beautiful house belongs to Count San Simón, previously belonging to the Reguer family. Isabel Amar de Montaner, wife of the old Count San Simón, had this house as part of her dowry, along with the title of Marquis of Reguer. The house was later purchased by Antoni Blanes d’Artà, who brought back a fortune he earned in the Americas. The latter built up and modernized a part of this stately mansion.

To the right of Carrer de la Unió, forming a boulevard lined with trees of heaven, is Plaça del Mercat. This triangular plaza measures 130 paces long. The base of the triangle corresponds to Carrer de la Unió, while its sharpest side corresponds to the one opposite the Sant Nicolau Church. There’s a fountain in the middle of the plaza. It consists of a base supporting a cut column shaft. To the right is the grand house belonging to the Bergas, a veritable palace. It belongs to a line of the Safortesa family called Safortesas del Mercat to distinguish them from the Safortesas del Born. It’s made of sandstone and has an enormously long balcony which stands out from the facade. In the middle is a large Baroque coat of arms located above the portal. The patio is very wide, with diminished arch porticos and, to the right, a very comfortable staircase which leads to the very pretty arched gallery on the top floor.

At the end of Mercat, formed by the end of Carrer de la Unió, is Plaça del Teatre, so-named because of the theatre which serves as the backdrop.

Carrer de la Riera forms an angle with Plaça del Teatre. The street is a prolongation of the plaza and is so-named in allusion to the time when the creek ran through here instead of the city’s main street. The street here is short, and the modern buildings lining it don’t merit special mention. It ends at the Rambla, the city’s widest street and which measures 400 paces to the Porta de Jesús gateway. The Rambla is built in the Spanish fashion, the boulevard running between two rows of beautiful and lush plane trees with stone benches in between. The boulevard is lit by two series of gas streetlamps.

Plaça de Jesús is broad and has no decoration whatsoever. The gateway with the same name opens onto it in front of the end of the Rambla. More than a plaza, it is an intersection of four streets, with Calle de la Beneficencia to the right and Carrer dels Oms to the left."

Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria. Las Baleares por la palabra y el grabado. Majorca: City of Palma. Ed. Sa Nostra, Caja de Baleares. Palma de Mallorca. 1982.