Palma de Mallorca

Why this port matters

Palma alone would justify a stop, but tomorrow the moon's shadow falls directly on this city. Palma lies inside the path of totality of the 2026 eclipse. Walking the old town today, know that these same streets will experience 1m 36s of totality at 8:31 PM tomorrow.

Brief history

Founded by the Romans in 123 BC, reshaped by three centuries of Moorish rule, and taken in 1229 by James I of Aragon, who briefly made it the seat of the independent Kingdom of Mallorca. The vast Gothic La Seu cathedral was raised on the site of the old Friday mosque.

Highlights

• ·La Seu, Gothic cathedral with the world's largest Gothic rose window; interior reworked by Gaudí in 1904
• ·Royal Palace of La Almudaina, Moorish, Gothic, and Spanish-royal layered in one building
• ·Bellver Castle, 14th-century circular fortress on a pine-covered hill above the city
• ·Banys Àrabs (Arab Baths) and Es Baluard Museum on the seafront
• ·Sóller Train (1912), narrow-gauge wooden train through the Serra de Tramuntana
• ·Old Town walk: Passeig del Born, Plaça Major, the streets behind the cathedral