Palma de Mallorca
Spain · Europe
About Palma de Mallorca
Palma, also known as Palma de Mallorca (officially between 1983–1988, 2006–2008, and 2012–2016), is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain. It is situated on the south coast of Mallorca on the Bay of Palma. With a population of 438,234 as of 2024, it is the 8th-largest city in Spain.
The Cabrera Archipelago, though widely separated from Palma proper, is part of the municipality.
Palma was founded as a Roman camp upon the remains of a Talaiotic settlement. The city was subjected to several Vandal raids during the fall of the Western Roman Empire, then reconquered by the Byzantine Empire, then colonised by the Moors (who called it Medina Mayurqa) and, in the 13th century, by James I of Aragon.
After the conquest of Mallorca, the city was loosely incorporated into the province of Tarraconensis by 123 BC; the 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 a port to Roman cities on the northwestern Mediterranean Sea, Palma was the port used for destinations in Africa, such as Carthage, and...
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.