Friday 25 October 2013

A Brief History Of Mallorca

From The Rough Guide to Mallorca and Menorca:

Southern Mallorca

Most of Southern Mallorca comprises the island's central plain, Es Pla, a fertile tract surrounded to the west by the mountainous Serra de Tramuntana and to the east by the hilly range that shadows the coast, the Serra de Llevant.

... although it may seem like a sleepy backwater, it was Es Pla that pretty much defined Mallorca until the twentieth century: the majority of the island's inhabitants lived here, it produced enough food to meet almost every domestic requirement, and Palma's gentry were reliant on Es Pla estates for their income...

This situation persisted until the 1960s, when the tourist boom stodd everything on its head and the developers simply bypassed Es Pla to focus on the picturesque coves of the east coast.

Inca and around

In medieval times, one of the few ways to escape the clutches of the island's landowners was to practise a craft and then join the appropriate guild. As early as the fifteenth century, Inca had attracted enough shoemakers to be become the centre of a flourishing shoemaking industry - and so it remains today with Camper's HQ and main factory-warehouse firmly ensconced here.

3 comments:

Graeme said...

do they mention the 14thc Catalan philosophers, such as Ramon Lull? Or the temporary Kingdom of Mallorca that extended up to Perpignan (present-day France).?

Bayard said...

Majorca's railways are interesting. For years I remember them being cited as a example of privately owned railways that ran at a profit. A few years ago, a left-wing government in Majorca decide that there were too many cars on the island and invested heavily in the main railway, presumably without much effect, as apart from one (the Soller railway) all the railways had been built to serve Es Pla and all the tourists wanted to go to places on the coast. Millions was spent on a new terminus in Palma, but the most useful part, the reinstatement of the line that would now serve the airport, was never built.

Mark Wadsworth said...

G, yes and no, respectively.

B, the airport is so close to Palma town centre, you can take the bus in ten minutes, a railway that takes you in three minutes would be nice but no big deal.