Fornalutx Things to do and hotels

May

Fira de sa Taronja

During most of May, Sóller and Fornalutx collaborate to host Mallorca’s only orange and citrus festival. Throughout the month, you can experience a wealth of activities and entertainment of various kinds in both villages. You will typically enjoy competitions, workshops, demonstrations and tastings.

Throughout the festival, the majority of eateries create special menus where oranges, lemons or limes are among the ingredients so you can really taste the essence of the area.

September

Festes of Fornalutx

Throughout the first week of September, Fornalutx celebrates its patron saint and the end of the summer with a big village party lasting an entire week.

A variety of fun activities and cultural features are usually on the program when the inhabitants of the beautiful mountain town celebrate themselves. Games, competitions, stalls, exhibitions and entertainment are some of the things you can look forward to.

But the town festival also has another highlight, namely the local tradition called Davallada del Bou de Fornalutx (descent of the bull in Fornalutx). A bull is pulled down the stairs at the town square in Fornalutx and shown off, and nothing happens to the bull.

In the old days, however, it was very different, here the bull was slaughtered and the inhabitants each got a small piece of meat. It was the case in Mallorca that working animals such as bulls were a strict necessity to survive in agriculture, therefore they could not be slaughtered. It also meant that the protein sources had to come from other animals, e.g. rabbits, squirrels, birds. But when it was time for celebrations, things had to be different.

Up through the 20th century, however, this tradition was phased out for the sake of animal welfare laws, as animals suffered heavy loads before the slaughtering. But then again in 2017, after political negotiations, it succeeded in re-establishing this tradition in a way so that the animal would not suffer.