e - Ajuntament de Palma

| d | i | s | c | o | v | e| r |ooo| P | a | l | m | a | Palma entdecken
The sphinxes / Sphinx-Figuren.
GEOGRAPHY OF LEGENDS OF PALMA
MAKE READY TO CONTINUE OUR TOURS ON FOOT OF THE LEGENDS OF PALMA. AFTER THE FIRST TWO TOURS THAT LED US THROUGH
THE UPPER CITY, WE WILL FINISH OFF THE CIRCUIT WITH THE THIRD TOUR, WHICH WILL BRING TO LIGHT SHORT TALES ABOUT THE
LOWER CITY • WIR SETZEN UNSEREN SPAZIERGANG DURCH DIE LEGENDEN PALMAS FORO. NACH DEN ERSTEN BEIDEN RUNDGÄNGEN
DURCH DIE OBERSTADT, SCHLIEßEN WIR NUN UNSEREN SPAZIERGANG MIT DER DRITTEN ROUTE AB, DIE UNS ZU GESCHICHTEN DES
UNTEREN TEILS DER STADT FÜHREN. TEXT: GASPAR VALERO I MARTÍ
Start out on this tour in Plaça de les Tortugues (a
popular name for Plaça Joan Carles I). Where c/Jovellanos
begins one comes to a small piece of sculpture,
the Moor’s Head. There are those who say that it
might commemorate the executions ordered by
Captain Toni Barceló, a 17th century corsair, but it is
more likely to have been the result people confusing
the ‘head’ of the Born, understood as the beginning
or end of the street, and the ‘head’ of a person
placed on public display.
Continue along c/ Jovellanos and turn to the left into
c/ Paraires, until this street joins Sant Nicolau. In
Plaça del Mercat, behind Sant Nicolau church, one
can see the stone of Santa Catalina Thomàs, where
tradition has it that the Mallorquin saint awaited her
admission into a convent. They say that the bells
pealed loudly when she was accepted by the convent
of Santa Magdalena. At Can Pinós (no.15) is the
coat of arms of the Sureda de Sant Martí family and
the motto that the knight Salvador Sureda adopted
for the famous tourney that took place in Naples in
1444 against Francí Valseca: “Dins és lo qui el pren”
(“Inside is what takes him”). Next to this house, L’Ecce
Homo street leads into the Rambla; the street
brings to mind the miracle of the appearance of this
figure to a venerable woman who had just been
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tempted by the ill-intentioned Devil. In the church of
the Santa Magdalena convent, one could speak at
length of the prodigies of Santa Catalina Tomàs and
how the Devil tortured her cruelly.
Walk up the slope to the La Sang church, which
holds the most venerated figure in Palma, that of
Sant Crist de la Sang. There is also there another less
well-known image of Christ on the cross, that of the
Condenados a Muerte (Sentenced to Death), which
was put on display whenever there was an execution;
on one occasion, tradition has it that the Christ
spoke to a repentant condemned man and promised
him he would attain Glory. Still in the La Sang church
another treasure can be seen: the Gothic crib scene
from the convent of Jesus; the legend relates that it
was a gift following a promise that the captain of a
ship had made when in danger of shipwreck.
One reaches calle Concepcion via calle de la Pietat,
and there in the church of that name, look at the
Sant Crist del Noguer, which originally came from
the convent of Santa Margalida; the legend holds
that this beautiful Gothic figure was discovered
carved miraculously on the trunk of a walnut tree.
Walk on past the el Sepulcro fountain, a remider of
the old church of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre
of Jerusalem. Near the fountain of les Tortugues, one
can observe a stone plaque commemorating the
knights who would take part in jousting tournaments
– the verb in the vernacular is ‘bornear’– in
the boulevard in reality named ‘Born’.
Continue along the Born, as far as the beginning of
calle de Sant Feliu, and turn into the street, popularly
called de Ses Carasses (Cheeky Faces). Number 10,
a house called Can Pavesi, is defended by the insolent
faces that give the street its nickname; the
largest of them is brazenly sticking his tongue out at
us, with the slogan “Eundo” (“For the passer by”)
written above it. Via calle de Montenegro, walk on
to the junction with calle del Estanco, next to which
is the calle de la Mà del Moro (Moor’s Hand St.), the
name of which recalls a historical event; the murder
of a chaplain by his Moorish slave in 1731, and how,
after his execution, the convicted man’s hand was
hung on the façade of the house.
After going along first calle de Montenegro and
then calle de Sant Joan, gaze on the architectural
marvel of La Lonja, with the defending Angel of la
Mercaderia accompanied by other figures, like the
enigmatic gargoyles, one of which looks as if he is
crying out sorrowfully: “Oh! How cold it is!” Carry
on to the Hort del Rei, near which one espies the
tower of the Angel of the Almudaina. Towards the