Everything about Palma De Mallorca totally explained
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time_zone = CET (GMT +1)|
time_zone_summer = CEST (GMT +2)|
image_skyline = Palma_de_Mallorca.jpg|
image_skyline_size = 250px|
founded = |
native_language = Catalan|
community = Balearic Islands|
community_link = Balearic Islands|
province = Balearic Islands|
province_link = Balearic Islands|
comarca = |
comarca_link = |
divisions = 5|
neighborhoods = |
mayor = Aina Calvo Sastre|
political_party = PSOE|
political_party_link = Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spain)|
area = 213,55|
altitude = 13|
population = 413.781 |
date-population = 2008|
population-ranking = |
density = 1756|
date-density = |
website = http://www.palmademallorca.es/|
postal_code = 070XX|
area_code = 971|
}}
Palma is the major
city and port on the island of
Mallorca 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
2007 census, the population of the city of Palma proper was 383,107, and the population of the entire urban area was estimated to be 517,285, ranking as the 12th-largest urban area of Spain. Almost half of the total population of Mallorca 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, serves over 22 million passengers each year. 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
Palma (Palmaria) was founded as a
Roman camp upon the remains of a
Talaiotic settlement. The turbulent history of the city saw it the subject of several
Vandal sackings during the
fall of the Roman Empire, then reconquered by the
Byzantine, then colonised by the
Moors (who called it
Medina Mayurqa), and finally established by
James I of Aragon.
Roman Period
After the conquest of
Mallorca, it was loosely incorporated into the province of
Tarraconensis by
123 BC; Romans founded two new cities:
Palma on the south of the island, and
Pollentia in the northeast - on the site of a Phoenician settlement. Whilst Pollentia acted as port to Roman cities on the northwestern
Mediterranean Sea, Palmaria was the port used for destinations in
Africa, such as
Carthage, and
Hispania, such as
Saguntum,
Gades, and
Carthago Nova. Though no visible remains of this period are seen in present day Palma, archaeological discoveries still occur whenever excavating under the city centre.
Byzantine Period
Though the period between the
Fall of Rome and the
Muslim conquest isn't well known (due to lack of documents), there's clear evidence of
Byzantine presence in the city, as indicated by
mosaics found in the oldest parts of the Cathedral, which was in early medieval times a paleo-Christian temple.
Muslim Period
Between
902 and
1229, the city was under
Islamic control, in some form, as described below.
Under the Caliphate
The arrival of
Moors in the
Balearic Islands occurred at the beginning of the VIII century. During this period, the population developed an economy based on self-sufficiency and piracy, and even showed evidence of a relative hierarchy. The dominant groups took advantage of the
Byzantine withdrawal due to Islamic expansion, to reinforce their domination upon the rest of the population, thus ensuring their power and the gradual abandonment of Imperial structures.
In 707, a Muslim fleet, under the command of Abd Allah ibn Musa, son of the governor of Ifriqiya, Musa ibn Nusayr, stopped at the island. It appears that Abd Allah convinced the factional powers of the city to accept a peace treaty. This treaty granted, in exchange for a tax, respect for social, economic and political structures to the communities that subscribed it, as well as the continuity of their religious beliefs.
After 707, the city was inhabited by Christians who were nominally in allegiance to the sovereignty of the
Caliphate of Damascus, yet who,
de facto, enjoyed an absolute autonomy. The city, being in Mallorca, constituted an enclave between western
Christian and
Islamic territories, and this attracted and encouraged increased levels of piracy in the surrounding waters. For wide sectors of the city's population, the sacking of ships (whether Muslim or Christian) which passed through
Balearic waters, was the first source of riches during the next fifteen decades. Eventually, the continued piracy in the region lead to retaliation by
Al-Andalus which launched its naval power against the city and the whole of the Islands.
The Islands were defended by the emperor Charlemagne in 799 of a saracen pirate incursion.
In 848 (maybe 849), for years after the first
Viking incursions had sacked the whole island, an attack from
Córdoba forced the authorities to ratify the treaty to which the city had submitted in 707. As the city still occupied an eccentric position regarding the commerce network established by the
Caliph in the western
Mediterranean Sea, this accounts for how the enclave wasn't immediately incorporated into
Al-Andalus
While the
Caliph of Córdoba reinforced its influence upon the Mediterranean, the interest of Al-Andalus for the city increased. The logical consequence of this evolution was the substitution of the submission treaty by the effective incorporation of the
islands to the
Islamic state. This incorporation took place in the last years of the Emirate. In
902, a squad under the command of
Isam al-Jawlani took advantage of the instability caused by several
Viking incursions and disembarked in
Mallorca, and after destroying any resistance, incorporated Mallorca, with Palma as its capital, to the Córdobese dominions.
The incorporation of the city to the Emirate sets the basis for a new social organisation, far more articulated and complex than before. Commerce and manufacture developed in a manner that was unknown previously. This caused a considerable demographic growth, thereby establishing
Medina Mayurqa as one of the major ports for trading goods in and out of the
Caliph of Córdoba.
Denia - Balearic Taifa (1015 - 1087)
The
Umayyad regime, despite its administrative centralisation, mercenary army and struggle to gain wider social support, could neither harmonise the various ethnic groups inside
al-Andalus nor dissolve the old tribal bounds which still organised sporadic ethnic in-fighting. During the 11
th century, the Caliphate's control waned considerably. Provinces broke free from the central Córdobese administration, and became effectively sovereign states -
"taifas" - under the same governors that had been named by the last Umayyad Caliphs. According to their origin, these "taifas" can be grouped under three broad categories:
Arabian,
Berber, or
Slavic origin.
Palma was part of the Slavic "taifas", the
Denia "taifa". The founder of this state was a client of the
Al-Mansur family,
Muyahid ibn Yusuf ibn Ali, who could take profit from the progressive crumbling of the Caliphate's superstructure to gain control over the province of
Denia. Subsequently, Muyahid organised a campaign throughout the
Balearic Islands to consolidated this district and incorporated them to its "taifa" in early 1015.
During the following years Palma became the main port from where attacks on Christian vessels and coasts could be launched. Palma was the base from where a campaign against
Sardinia was launched between 1016 and 1017, which caused the intervention of
Pisans and
Genovese forces. Later, this intervention set the basis for
Italian mercantile penetration of the city.
The
Denian dominion lasted until
1087, a period during which the city, as well as the rest of the islands, was relatively peaceful. Their supremacy at sea was still not rivalled by the Italian
merchant republics, thus there were few external threats.
The Balearic Taifa (1087 - 1115) and the Western Mediterranean
The
Banu Hud conquest of Denia and the incorporation of this to the Eastern district of the
taifa of
Zaragoza meant the destruction of the work of Muyahid. The Islands got unbound from peninsular dominion and for a short time, enjoyed independence, during which Medina Mayurqa was the capital.
The economy during this period depended on both agriculture and piracy. In the latter 11
th century,
Christian commercial powers took the initiative at sea against the
Muslims. After centuries of fighting defensively in the face of
Islamic pressure,
Italians,
Catalans and
Occitans took offensive action. Consequently, the benefits of piracy diminished causing severe economic stress on the city.
The clearest proof of the new ruling relation of forces, from 1090, is the
Crusade organised by the most important mercantile cities of the Christian states against the Islands. This effort was destined to finally eradicate Muslim piracy mainly based in Palma and surrounding havens. In
1115, Palma was sacked and later abandoned by an expedition commanded by
Ramon Berenguer III the Great, count of
Barcelona and
Provence, which comprised
Catalans,
Pisans and other Italians, and soldiers from
Provence,
Corsica, and
Sardinia, in a struggle to end
Almoravid control.
After this, the Islands became part of the Almoravid Caliphate, the
Islamic replica of the growing
Christian aggressively in the
Mediterranean and the
Iberian Peninsula. The reunification of all the
taifa under one state helped to re-establishing a balance along the frontier that separated western Christian states from
Dar al-Islam, the
Muslim world.
The Period of the Banu Ganiya (1157 - 1203)
The Almoravids upon the islands, sacked by
Catalans and
Pisans could be established without great resistance. The situation changed in the middle 12
th century, when the
Almoravids, displaced from
Al Andalus and western
Maghreb Almohad. Almoravid dominions, from 1157 on, are restricted to the
Balearic Islands, being again Palma the capital, governed by Muhammad ibn Ganiya. Massive arrival from Al-Andalus refugees contributed to reinforce the positions of the last Almoravid legitimitists, the Banu Ganiya, who, conscious of their weakness in the Western
Mediterranean context, starting to get closer to the growing powers represented by
Italian cities.
Genovese and
Pisans obtain then their first commercial concessions in the city and the rest of the islands.
From this strategic enclave the
Balearic Islands meant, the Banu Ganiya, taking advantage of the great loss suffered by Abu Yuqub Yusuf as-Santarem, took offensive action and attacked Ifriqiya in 1184, where
Almohad dominion hadn't been consolidated. However, this attack was repelled and the Almohad authorities encouraged anti-Almoravid revolts in the Islands. Thus, between
1187 and
1203, the city is under the dominion of the
Marrakech Caliphate.
Christian Conquest and late Middle Age
On
December 31 1229, after three months of siege, the city was conquered by
James I of Aragon and was renamed as Palma de Mallorca. In addition to being kept as capital of the Kingdom of Mallorca, it was given a municipality that comprised the whole island. The governing organ was the
University of the City and Kingdom of Mallorca.
After the Death of James I of Aragon, Palma was joint capital of the
Kingdom of Mallorca with
Perpignan. His son,
James II of Mallorca, championed the construction of statues and monuments in the city:
Bellver Castle, the churches of St. Francesc and St. Domingo, reformed the
Palace of Almudaina and began the construction of the
Cathedral of Mallorca.
The river that cut through the city gave rise to two distinct areas within the city; "Upper town" and "Lower town", depending upon which side of the river they were situated.
The city's privileged geographical location allowed it to keep extensive commerce with
Catalonia,
Valencia,
Provence, the
Maghreb, the Italian dukedoms and the dominions of the
Great Turk, which heralded a golden age for the city.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Rebellion of the Brotherhoods (a peasant uprising against
Charles V's administration) and the frequent attack of
Turkish and
Berber pirates caused a reduction of commercial activities and a huge inversion in defensive structures. As a consequence, the city entered a period of decadence that would last till the end of the 17th century.
17th to 19th Century
The 17th century is characterised by the division of the city in two sides or gangs, named
Canamunts and
Canavalls (from Mallorcan Catalan "the ones from the upper/lower side"), with severe social and economical repercussions. During this period the port became a corsair's haven. During the last quarter of the century, the
Inquisition reinforced its prosecution of the Jews, locally named
xuetes
The fall of
Barcelona in
1714 meant the end of the
Spanish Succession War and the end of the
Crown of Aragon, and this was reflected on the
Decretos de Nueva Planta, issued by
Phillip V of Spain in 1715. This decree modified the government of the island and separated it from the municipality's government of Palma. At this time the City was officially named Palma, and by the end of the 19th century, the term
Palma de Mallorca was generalised, written, mostly, and in
Spanish. In the 18th century
Charles III of Spain removed interdiction of commerce with
Spanish colonies in America and the port and commercial activity of the city grew once again.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Palma became the refuge of many who had exiled themselves from the
Napoleonic occupation of
Catalonia and
Valencia; during this period freedom flourished, until the absolutist restoration. With the creation of the national state of
Spain, Palma became the capital of the new province of
Balearic Islands in
1833. The French occupation of
Algeria in the 19th century ended the fear of Maghrebi attacks in Mallorca, which favoured the expansion of new maritime lines, and consequently, the economic growth of the city, which suffered a demographic increase, with the birth of new nucleus of population.
20th Century to Today
Since the
1950s, the advent of mass
tourism radically changed the physiognomy of both the city and island, transforming it into a centre of attraction for visitors and attracting workers from mainland
Spain. This contributed to a huge change in the traditions, the sociolinguistic map, urbanisation and acquisitive power.
The boom in tourism caused Palma to grow significantly, with repercussions on immigration. In
1960 Mallorca received 500,000 visitors, in
1997 it received more than 6,739,700. In
2001 more than 19,200,000 people passed through
Son Sant Joan airport near Palma, with an additional 1.5 million coming by sea.
In the 21st century, urban redevelopment, by the so-called
Pla Mirall (English "Mirror Plan"), attracted important groups of immigrant workers from outside the
European Union, especially from
Africa and
South America.
Palma de Mallorca was the host of the
tennis event
Battle of Surfaces.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Palma De Mallorca'.
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