Pollença, Mallorca - A Nerdy Guide

From around 1100 BC, the Talayotic culture arrived in Menorca and Mallorca. This culture was characterized by these watchtower-like construction known as talayots/talaiots, a name they have gotten from the Catalan word talaia which means watchtower. The talayots testify to the beginning colonization from the east, namely ancient Greeks and Phoenicians, who traveled across the Mediterranean to find metals and establish trading routes.

We know, that in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, Phoenicians from Carthage, known for their trading activities, crossed the Mediterranean in their quest for ore and metals. They colonized many areas of present day southwest Spain and Portugal, known as the Iberian Pyrite Belt. They set up factories producing shoes and cloths which they could trade. We also know about the Phoenicians that they had a predilection for islands and territories close to the sea, which again testify to their trading activities.

The mixing of indigenous peoples and colonizers gave birth to not only new kinds of agricultural and industrial communities, but also a new a philosophy far more military-oriented than prior in the Bronze Age. One of the most remarkable outcomes of this mix, was the Balearic foners, deadly warriors renown and feared for their slinging abilities of accuracy and power. Actually, Hannibal the Great was cited for ordering extra protection for the foners in the wars in Italy.

The military oriented mentality also led to urban zones enclosed by megalithic walls. One of the largest Talayotic towns in Mallorca, was actually located here in Pollença, not far from the natural area and hill of Santueri. The Can Daniel Gran was discovered in the early 20th century by L. C. Watelin, who drew out the planimetry and outline of the site. Can Daniel Gran has not been properly excavated like many other Talayotic settlements in Mallorca, due to the consumption of the forest and the destruction of humans as it was used as a quarry. But the size (15,300 m²) and location Can Daniel Gran indicates a high importance similar to the site of Ses Paîsses in Artà.

From the late Talayotic period, around 300 BC, some wooden coffins shaped as bulls has been found in the lands of Can Tirana. These are, along with many other interesting artifacts and relics, exhibited at the municipal museum of Pollença.

Roman conquest

In 123 BC, about 20 years after the fall of Carthage, Roman general Quintus Caecilius Metellus conquered the Balearic islands, a conquest that gave him the title of consul and the nickname “Balearicus”. Metellus was an experienced man of war, however, he did not have many major accomplishments on his record which is part of the reason that the conquest of the Balearic Islands came in a convenient time. The official reason for the conquest, was a strike against piracy in the Mediterranean, which truly was a part of it. But more importantly, it was strategic trading outpost, that gave the Romans more dominance in the region, and again, a safer journey when they traveled by naval routes.

Quintus Caecilius Metellus was well aware of his opponents and their capabilities to defend themselves from the shores. He had already been acquainted with the Balearic foners and knew these would cause him great loses. To counter the devastating shots of the foners, he strapped leather around his ships to function as a protective shield when the projectiles hit. This tactic allowed him to embark his troops close to the shoreline.

From then, the battle began against the indigenous people of Mallorca, who retrenched and barricaded themselves in the walled enclosures of Can Daniel Gran. It was a prolonged process of finding and fighting the tribes, however, when first found the resistance was not a match for the organized and skilled Roman troops.

The Romans too mixed with the Talayotic peoples, which gave them ability to incorporate the Balearic foners in the Roman army. Actually, the foners are mentioned by Caesar in the Gaul war.

The Romans took over many of the Talayotic villages on the island, but more interestingly, they created the cities of Palma and Pol-lentia, the latter served as the capital. Pol-lentia was built just outside present day Alcúdia, where the main activities would happen, such as the forum, the amphitheater and palaces would be at. However, Can Daniel Gran coexisted with the capital of Pol-lentia (meaning power). The Romans also constructed the bridge that crossed the river, Torrent de la Vall d’en Marc, at that time much wider, which testify to the enormous area they operated in.

Moorish occupation

In 902, Moorish general Iṣām al-Ḫawlānī conquered the Balearic archipelago and incorporated it into the Emirate of Cordoba. Later in 1015, it became a part of the Taifa de Dénia.

During the Moorish occupation (902-1231), Mallorca was divided in roughly twelve jurisdictions in order to easier administrate it and collect taxes to build Madina Mayurqua (Palma), which became the capital. Pollença and Alcúdia became one district named Bullensa, a name they took from Pol-lentia and translated to Arabic.

The Moors were agrarian people living in farms and huts scattered all over the area in so-called alquerias and rafals, in kindred clans or tribes. There were only about 5-6 population centers at that time including Madina Mayurqua, some others were in Artà and Felanitx.

One of the most populated areas around Pollença was at the present day Son Grua from where artifacts of a funeral ceremony has been discovered with Arabic inscriptions dating from 1123. It is also from these finds that we become aware of the name of the clan that was probably the first inhabitants of Pollença; Zaynab.

The Catalan conquest

In the years between 1229 and 1231, King Jaume I of Aragón conquered Mallorca. Madina Mayurqua fell after just three month of siege. Following the conquest, King Jaume divided and distributed the lands of the island amongst knights, orders, barons and church, documented in the Llibre del Repartiment de Mallorca (Book of Distribution of Mallorca). This was when the kingdom of Mallorca was born, a kingdom that would last until 1349.

Bullensa was divided among the king himself and the Knights Templar, who was given the area of present day Pollença and some land near the hill of Sant Martí in Alcúdia. There was also some lands given to the order of Dertusa (Tortosa), the bishop of Mallorca and some barons. However, not many years later, the Templars gained dominance over almost all of the area allowing them to prosper greatly from renting out lands, as well as jurisdiction. In 1240, the Templars also gained religious dominance as the bishop of Mallorca, Ramon de Torrella, was ceded from the parish. At the top of the Puig del Temple, present day Calvario, a chapel was erected as symbol.

Pollença quickly grew in popularity and the population increased, actually, Pope Innocent IV recognized the first church or chapel in a bull from 1248. But towards the end of the century, despite that Pollença was one of the most important town outside Palma, a lot of confrontations and disputes with the Templars started to occur, they had too much influence and did not respect the wishes of King Jaume.

In 1314, the Templars were replaced by the Knights Hospitaller as lords of Pollença. By then, Pollença had already a population of 3,000 inhabitants and prospering from agricultural activities, namely sheeps. However, as the Black Death ravaged Europe in 1348, the population and economical activities fell drastically. The plague reached the island due to rats onboard ships that came to Port d’Alcúdia. In that year, the sanctuary of Puig de Maria was constructed. At that time, it was commonly believed that the higher you could go the safer you would be. The sanctuary was expanded in 1370.

The end of the Mallorcan kingdom

In 1343, Jaume III of Mallorca was found guilty in plagiary by the courts of Barcelona. He had been printing Barcelonian currency in Perpignan, present day France. He was sentenced to transfer all of his assets and properties to Peter the Ceremonious, king of Aragón.

In May the same year, Peter “invaded” Mallorca in compliance with the sentence and defeated Jaume whom fled to Roussillon and Sardinia. Pollença was one of the towns that defended Jaume and the kingdom of Mallorca against the troops from Aragón.

Another military campaign in 1344 set Jaume further back, as Peter’s troops took control Roussillon, Menorca and Eivissa (Ibiza), still in compliance with the sentence of 1343, In July 1344, Jaume surrendered to Peter on the condition that his life was spared and he was given his freedom, as well as keeping Montpellier as the last state in his possession. Jaume then took refuge in the papal court in Avignon.

However, Jaume was not done, he was determined to win back Mallorca at any cost. For this purpose, he sold Montpellier to the king of France for 120,000 gold coins with the blessings of Pope Climent VI.

With his first payment for Montpellier, Jaume assembled an army of mercenaries and set sails for Mallorca in the fall 1349. On October 11, he disembarked his troops at the beach of Cap de Formentor and on the beach of Albercutx in the bay of Pollença, a total of 300 horsemen and 700 infantry. Jaume met resistance in Pollença, that held stand for two whole days before he broke through an besieged the town. Jaume’s hope was initially, that the people who had fought Peter’s troops in the battles of Castell del Rei, in 1343, would support him, but they had turned their backs on him which led to several brutal battles in the area. Following the defeat of Pollença, Jaume and his troops invaded Alcúdia and later Muro, both towns suffered great destruction of both buildings and fields.

On October 25th, Jaume lost the kingdom of Mallorca in the Battle of Llucmajor against Peter’s troops.

The revolt of the artisans guilds

In the beginning of the modern age, Mallorca faced two major civil wars; Revolta Forana and Revolta de les Germanies, both had roots in high fiscal pressure and corruption.

At that time, when talking about areas of Mallorca, there was the Ciutat de Mallorca (Palma) and the Part Forana (foreign part), which was basically all districts outside the capital. Many lands of the foreign parts of Mallorca were owned by the nobility of the Ciutat de Mallorca, who rented out soil for peasants.There was of course also many small landowners who employed day laborers.

A series of droughts and plagues had major consequences for the peasants who had trouble cultivating crops to sell, but at the same time, the fiscal pressure was intensified, but only for the peasants and not the nobility. In 1450, the king commanded a document conducted which would declare all landowners of the island. As many peasants and smaller landowners did not have paper on their rights to administrate their lands, their properties went to the nobility, which caused the first societal conflict and civil war. This conflict ended with the king sending mercenaries to the island to end the conflict in 1453.

About 70 years later, in 1520, a new conflict arose, the revolt of the Brotherhood. This time it was the artisans guilds that was trying to create a twin society in order to remove the public debt and end corruption of the nobility. This movement happened many places in Spain and particularly in Barcelona and Valencia. Joanet Colom, a local artisan of Felanitx, was the main agitator of the Brotherhood in Mallorca.

As the requirements of the Brotherhood were denied by the governor, things soon turned violent several places on the island. The Brotherhood gained support from multiple towns which were besieged and under control of the movement. From November 1521, the Brotherhood tried multiple times to break the fortified walls of neighboring town of Alcúdia, where most of the island’s nobility had taken refuge.

In October 1522, the imperial troops sent by King Carles arrived at the port of Alcúdia, from where the most brutal military campaign since the conquest in 1229 began.

Pollença, which was predominantly on the side of the Brotherhood and had participated in numerous attacks on Alcúdia, was one of the first towns to feel the wrath of the imperial forces. On October 29th, the troops reached and seized the town, which was completely sacked with no exemptions. The parish church of Santa Maria at the main square quickly became a refuge for the inhabitants who tried to escape the soldiers, and waited in hope that it would be possible to negotiate a peaceful surrender. However, the imperial troops were not prepared to wait for a surrender.

The troops lit the doorways of the church on fire, and the about 200 people locked inside the church died from asphyxiation, mostly women and children. Men were slaughtered in the main square, many was hung from the trees and other’ body parts were nailed to the trees along the roads to set an example. Those people that was not killed during the siege fled to the mountains.

The Brotherhood sent reinforcements, who met the imperial army in the marshes of Sa Pobla in November where they too were slaughtered. This was the end of the revolt.

As a consequence, all towns and families that had taken part in the revolt was penalized with massive fines, including Pollença.

The war of the Brotherhood, the plague of 1523, the repressions and immigration caused a reduction of a third of the Mallorcan population. The towns of Sencelles, Binissalem, Felanitx, Pollença, Alcúdia, Bunyola, Santanyí and Llucmajor lost more than half of their inhabitants.

A new parish church was erected in the 1570’s, which again was replaced by the current Baroque temple built in the 18th century under the invocation of Our Lady of Angels.

The Ottoman threat

If things weren’t bad enough after the war of the Brotherhood and various natural disasters, the Ottoman empire started attacking the Balearic archipelago in the middle of the 16th century. The brutal sacking of Mahón in Menorca, in 1558, where more than 6,000 people were taken as slaves, was a clear warning that a new threat was close. The Ottoman navy allied with corsairs from North Africa making it possible to attack Mallorca from all coasts.

On May 31, 1560, an attack on Pollença was a reality. The raid was planned and executed by legendary naval commander Dragut, but was rejected and chased off by captain Joan Mas and his brave troops.

The 16th and 17th century were marked by a constant threat from pirates approaching the bays of Mallorca. Many towns was subject to brutal raids of looting and destruction where especially women and children were taken hostage for enormous ransoms.

The arrival of religious communities

In the beginning of the 17th century the threat of the pirate attacks had gradually decreased and the population started to grow once again and reached about 4,000 inhabitants. The area became dedicated to agriculture and textile work, which would become one of the industries that made Pollença stand out among other towns. The growth of the population and economy also attracted the Dominican monks who arrived in 1578 and constructed the great Sant Domingo convent, finished in 1588, which still retains its stunning baroque altarpiece from 1651 built by Joan Antoni Oms.

After a time of violence up through the 17th century, things calmed again towards the end of the century. As order was restored in the town, the Jesuits arrived in 1688 and started their school and began the construction of their Baroque church. The church was not completed until 1738, shortly before the expulsion of Jesuits from Spain due to their highly socio-cultural impact which did not settle well with the king.

During the same period, the new parish church of Our Lady of Angels was begun (1714-1790), although the facade was not finished until the second half of the 19th century.

Demographic changes

In the mid-19th century a new population center was born, namely Port de Pollença. At that time, the coastal area was simply known as “Moll” by the locals, and only a single family of fishermen lived here. However, this family turned fishing into a profession in 1865, which gave rise to the construction of the wharf. In the year 1900, there were already about a hundred families of fishermen living here.

By the end of the 19th century, the population reached a maximum of 9,000 inhabitants. The number fell during the great emigration to Argentina around 1888, as Mallorca, like France and Italy, was ravaged by phylloxera which caused all grapevines to be destroyed. The many landowners of Pollença moved to Argentina, particularly La Plata and Rosario, to find new adventures and fortunes.

The development of new urban areas and economical activities also introduced great cultural influx with the appearance of prominent figures such as the Catalan-language poet Miquel Costa i Llobera (1854-1922), the historian Mateu Rotger (1862-1916), educator and republican Guillem Cifre de Colonya (1852-1908), founder of the Institution of Education of Pollença.

The cultural impact of the area continued to bloom during the first decades of the 20th century, when artists such as Anglada Camarasa, Atilio Boveri, Titto Citadini and Roberto Ramaugé among others came to the picturesque Port de Pollença, which reached a population well above 500 inhabitants in 1930. It was during this period that tourism was born in Pollença, several decades before tourism arrived in Mallorca for real. Some of the first hotels of Port de Pollença, were the Bellavista, Illa d’Or, Miramar, Marina Bristol and Mar i Cel. It is also worth mentioning the opening of the first Mallorcan luxury hotel, the Hotel Formentor, in 1928. In Pollença’s old town, the Cal Lloro abd Cosmospolita were the pioneers, and in Cala Sant Vicenç, which was still a fishing community, the Nui pension opened.

However, easy come easy go, and with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, tourism and social progress broke. The town was victim of a strong repression, and several locals were imprisoned or shot.

Introduction of mass tourism

Following some rough times of repression and lack of employment after the Civil War, the economy saw an uprising in the 1950’s and 60’s as mass tourism arrived on the island. The economic recovery resulted in a great re-population of the area, as hands were needed to accommodate the new requirements of the tourism industry, many was immigrants from Andalusia. In 1968, the population of Pollença reached about 10,000 inhabitants for the first time in history.

Port de Pollença too experienced a great increase of the population as a result of the tourism. The area ceased as an active fishing harbor and turned into a modern growing town. In 1981, there was already about 3,000 residents. Most of the traditional industries disappeared during the 1960’s, with exception of a few which became quite important to the local economy; the Can Morató carpet factory, the Can Siquir shoe factory, the Beba Salut soft drink factory and the Cuixac tile factory. However, in the 70’s and 80’s these industries were too curtailed. One important an emblematic industry that sustained, however, was the the llengües weaving industry, a special technique and art mostly famous by the works of local artist Martí Vicenc (1926-1995).

During the 1980’s, Cala de Sant Vicenç developed significantly, as well as population centers such as La Font, El Vilar, Gotmar and Llenaira.

Today, Pollença is more or less completely dedicated to tourism. But the mix of many different cultures of former immigrants and newcomers has created a multi-cultural atmosphere with a vibrant consumer life and a very particular charm that no other place can perform.