The Cities of Mallorca
The island of Mallorca (gorgeously located spanish enclave in the Mediterranean) is famous all world around. It's geographie ( sea, landscapes and climate )is priviliged and it's inhabitants known to be hospitable. In Mallorca (613'831 inhabitants and 3640 squarekilometers) the longest distance you can cover is 120 km, which seperates the tiny " Puerto de San Telm" from "Faro Formentor". These facts could lead to the wrong conclusions about the infinite opportunity's the island provides for excursions, discovering new landscapes and it's ever incredible beauty. The majority of visiters stick to the coastal area's (330 km) but the offer in the interior, with it's levelgrounds and it's mountains,is as surprising as advisable. Palma ,capital of the island, accomodates 325'000 inhabitants, in round numbers more than half the islands population. The town is spread along 15 km of coast, from "Arenal" and "Playa de Palma" (Levante) till the cosmopolitan districts of "Cala Mayor" and "San Agustin" (Poniente). Palma appears to be small but at the same time it gathers all the advantages of a reduced dimension. But offering all the possibility's of a town ten times it's size all this with much less inconvenience. The fact that the main source of income is tourism means that Palma is a town where attending the leasure time is vital, of first necesity. Restaurants, Pubs, Cafes, Music Halls (it's auditorium is one of the most popular in Europe), Discos, Plaza de Torros (bull rings) all kind of shows, all these give you a permanent offer of evasion and the entertainment that the capital provides for it's visitors. Majorca, throughout the whole of its history, has collected sufficient historical data to offer the visitor practically all the different aspects of the Latin world. The almost mythical landscapes of the mediterranean inhabited in turn by Carthaginians, Romans and Arabs is found here one after the other. A few steps from the old city centres, the traveller will find a rural atmosphere with all the characteristics of its personality totally intact. The hundred year-old olive trees, the almond trees arranged in terraces on the hillsides, the pine woods and also evergreen oaks in the highest parts - the fruit tree orchards, fishing ports and the ruined watchtowers crowning the cliffs from which pirates threatened the inhabitants of the island, have their counterpart in the architectural cults of its capital and the various aristocratic houses spread throughout the countryside. The traveller will be faced with a tight programme which will also include the memory of famous personalities who "discovered" Majorca and left in the island a vague nostalgic air. Beginning with George Sand and Chopin, who were there in 1838, and continuing with the Archduke Louis Salvador of Austria, who disembarked in Majorca in 1860, there have been many exceptional visitors who have chosen some part of Majorca to carry out their work. Majorca, the largest island of Balearic Archipelago, is natural bridge between Menorca and Ibiza. It has a whole extension of 3640 Km², limited by 500 Km. of coast. Landscapes show a notorius variety: the sharped mountains of the tramuntana heavely contrast with the vast central plain, soft hills of the llevant and the marvellous succession of cliffs, coves, bays, and sandy beaches which shape one of the most frequented coasts of the whole Mediterranean. Administratively, Mallorca is divided into 53 municipalities; the main municipalities are: Palma, Manacor, Alcúdia, Calvià and Inca. |
