Ethnological Museum of Mallorca

The ethnological museum offers a fascinating insight in bygone eras genuine Mallorcan style, exhibiting the finest in Mallorcan architecture from the rural areas.

The beautiful old mansion, Casa Alomar, was built in 1670th, and you can easily recognize it by the big arched entrance that differentiates from the other house facades in the street of Carrer Major. After visiting the museum, you will suddenly have far more insight in what the “real” Mallorca was like not long ago, when you continue your journey through the countryside.

The first rooms to see, is the ones located on your left hand side from the entrance. Here you get an impression of typical interior design of a Mallorcan family.

In the kitchen, you will find unique ceramic cookware, reminiscent of what you can find at the local market on Sundays, it is quite impressive and authentic.

The museum also houses a restored pharmacy full of tools that were used to find and create remedies and drugs for illnesses and deceases common during the Middla Ages. The first room of the pharmacy, exhibits a large selection of old labeled medicine bottles. In the second room (picture below), you can see all the tools used in the process of creating drugs.

Upstairs, you can find both tools and utilities for agriculture, typical furniture and collections of beautiful handmade interior decorations. There is also an extensive collection of Siurells, typical Mallorcan clay whistles painted white with red and green dots.

In one of the rooms upstairs, is also a glass box exhibiting painted roof tiles from Mallorca. There were made to protect the house from evil spirits. These tiles are still seen several places in Mallorca, mainly in Tramuntana, but also in the rural districts. In the idyllic mountain village of Fornalutx, you can see many houses decorated with these painted tiles if you stroll around the narrow streets. In Esporles, there is a small neighborhood of houses, called ‘Houses of Sun‘, that has painting on the facades to keep away evil spirits.

As you step out in the courtyard  behind the mansion, you can explore the tools used by blacksmiths and craftsmen at that time. Among other things, you can see how wheels were constructed, how orange trees was cultivated and how water wheels were utilized for creating power and automation.