La Portella mansions

Monuments | Palma de Mallorca

The calle de la Portella is one of the most magnificent streets in Palma, where some of the most emblematic mansions in the city can be found. From the 17th century there is the outstanding Can Formiguera, with a splendid balcony overlooking the street and the coat of arms on the corner displaying the arms of Ramon Burgues-Safortesa y Fuster, the count of Formiguera, a legendary figure in the history of Mallorca who is known by the name of "Comte Mal". Opposite we find the ancient lodgings of the Carthusians of Valldemossa in Palma, which following the confiscation of church property fell into private hands and is known as Cal Comte d'Espanya. The building was reconstructed in the 18th century and contains a beautiful Baroque courtyard. In the niche of the doorway we can see the image of St Bruno. Halfway along the street there are two large historic houses with Neo-Gothic features. The most significant is Can Espanya-Serra, which has an important late 19th century courtyard. In all of these buildings we can see the layout of the Mallorcan noble mansion which, generally speaking, tends to retain the great, traditionally Gothic, semicircular doorway, the studio floor, the balcony on the piano nobile and the rows of windows or columns of the attic or upper porxo. Lastly, there are the wonderful eaves protruding over the street and helping to protect the wall of the façade. On the left, if we go down towards the city wall, where an old mansion once stood, we come to the museum dedicated to the Catalan painter Joaquim Torrents Lladó (1946-1993), exhibiting his life and works. Further on, on Dalt Murada, we can see the large building of Ca la Torre (an abbreviation of Cal Marquès de la Torre), a mansion built in the early 18th century and an early example of the sober tone of Mallorcan noble architecture; its courtyard is integrated into the medieval walls.