Mallorca

Buswell Richard

Description

The island of Robert Graves, Joan Miro and Archduke Ludwig Salvador has become the most popular holiday destination in the Mediterranean with nearly 10 million visitors a year. Few, however, are aware of the 5000 year history of Mallorca and its resulting landscape featuring late Bronze Age navetes and talayots, Roman cities, and a major medieval trading port with one of Europes largest cathedrals. Mallorcas landscape has been formed with a pattern of important country houses and enclosed fields, and the relics of major nineteenth century industries including textiles and shoe-making workshops. One hundred and twenty years of tourism, latterly on a massive scale, endangers much of what has gone before. Professor Buswells pioneering work, based on more than ten years of local research, describes and analyses all these elements that together form the contemporary landscape. Written in an accessible style and well-illustrated with maps and photographs, this book will appeal to student and concerned reader alike and should be read by all who are inquisitive about what they see around them when they visit the island.

Sujets

• Histoire
• Historical geography
• History of Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Dunedin Academic Press
• Date de parution: 15 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781780466804
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

MALLORCA
The making of the landscape
Richard J. Buswell
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface
1 Introduction: Mallorca and landscape history
2 Mallorca and the Mediterranean
3 The physical basis of the landscape
4 Prehistoric Mallorca – early human imprint
5 Roman and other empires in Mallorca: limited landscapes
6 The landscape of the Muslims, 902–1229
7 Medieval Mallorca, 1229–1519
8 Early modern Mallorca, 1520–1820
9 The long nineteenth century, 1820–1920: the beginnings of modernisation
10 A beggar’s mantle fringed with gold – Mallorca 1920–1955
11 Mass tourism and the landscape – Mallorca 1955–2011
12 Reflections on a theme of landscape change
Notes
References
Index
List of Illustrations
Municipalities of Mallorca
2.1 The Western Mediterranean Basin
3.1 Map of physical regions
3.2 The outline geology of Mallorca
3.3 Seasonal flooding in Eastern Manacor
3.4 Reconstructed noria at the Ethnographic Museum of Mallorca, Muro
3.5 Treeline in Tramuntana above Son Galatzó (Calvià)
4.1 The target/distance ratio
4.2 Navete at Hospitalet, Manacor
4.3 Navete at Closos de Can Gaià, Portocolom (Felanitx)
4.4 Large flat stones probably recovered from the wall of a nearby talayot, Pou Celat (Vilafranca de Bonany)
4.5 The layout of a typical talayotic village
4.6 The iconic talayot at Ses Païsses, Artá
5.1 The Roman settlement of Pollentia
5.2 The theatre at Pollentia
5.3 Remains of houses and shops at Roman Pollentia
5.4 The plan of Roman Palma
5.5 The palaeo-Christian church, Son Paretó, Manacor
5.6 Tessellated pavements from Son Paretó, Manacor
6.1 A typical irrigation system dating from the Muslim era
6.2 The principal sèquia from the Coanegra irrigation system
6.3 Sketch map of the Alaró irrigation system
6.4 Alaró today showing the upper part of the irrigation system dating from the Muslim era
6.5 Galatzó water mills
6.6 The administrative districts and major centres in the Muslim era
6.7 Cross section of a typical terrace
6.8 The terraces of Banyalbufar
6.9 The plan of the Medina Mayurqa
7.1 Map of repartiment , the division of Mallorca following the conquest by Jaume I in 1229
7.2 Map of the new ‘towns’ established under the ordinances of Jaume II in 1300
7.3 A typical new ‘town’ layout
7.4 Plan of Llucmajor in the late 18th century
7.5 Reconstruction of a sitja , a site for charcoal burning
7.6 A forn de calc used to produce quicklime
7.7 Map of the medieval Ciutat
7.8 The walls and gates of medieval Ciutat
7.9 La Seu – the cathedral of Mallorca
7.10 Map of the call , the Jewish quarter of medieval Palma
7.11 The Llotja – the medieval merchant exchange
8.1 The atalaya of Cala Pί (Llucmajor)
8.2 Son Fortesa (Manacor) – a fortified possessió located near the east coast
8.3 A barraca de roter
8.4 Old olive trees
8.5 The chapel of the Ruberts possessió
8.6 A typical smaller 18C farm house near Porreres
8.7 The Galatzó possessió (Calvià)
8.8 Map of woodlands in the late 18C
8.9 Garau’s map of Mallorca, 1644
8.10 C’an Oleza in Carrer den Morey, Palma
8.11 Map showing population distribution of Mallorca, c.1786
8.12 Map of Manacor in the 18th century
8.13 Map of Andratx in the 18th century
9.1 The medieval St Domingo’s convent shown on Garau’s map, 1644
9.2 Calle Conquistador built on the site of St Domingo’s convent
9.3 Map of large landed estates ( possessions ) in 1870
9.4 Portocolom, a 19C commercial port
9.5 The Felanitx bodega
9.6 Plan of Colonia del Carme, 1888
9.7 The Gran Canal in the Albufera
9.8 The pumping system of the Albufera
9.9 Textile mills in Palma in 1885
9.10 Map of Mallorcan railways
9.11 The Sóller Railway
9.12 The Rambla in 19th century Palma
9.13 Map of Palma from 1888 by Umbert y Peris
9.14 Partial demolition of Palma city walls by 1920
10.1 Son Macià (Manacor) – a village founded in the 1920s
10.2 The energy complex at Zona del la Porta des Camp and Can Perantoni
10.3 The distribution of the woodworking industry in Manacor in 1925
10.4 The road between Bunyola and Sóller in 1930
10.5 The Gran Hotel of 1904, Palma
10.6 The Hotel Mediterráneo opened 1923
10.7 El Terreno, to the west of Palma in the late 19th century
10.8 Trams and tramways in Palma
10.9 Sant Elm in the early 20C
11.1 An hotel in Port de Pollença built in the 1920s
11.2 Sketch map of typical resort development
11.3 Plan of Cala d’Or, a resort begun in the 1930s
11.4 The marina at Port d’Alcúdia, 2010
11.5 The golf course at Son Termes (Bunyola)
11.6 Two beaches at Peguera (Calvià)
11.7 Magaluf (Calvià), perhaps the archetypal mass tourism resort
11.8 Unfinished railway construction, from Manacor to Artá, 2011
12.1 Photovoltaic arrays at Can Xic (Binissalem)
Acknowledgements
This is not a book based on original research in the sense of a dependence upon primary resources, but it has been constructed by drawing upon work largely written in Catalan and Castilian and interpreted for the benefit of British and other non-‘Spanish’ readers. Like any such book, this means reliance upon the work of many scholars to whom I am in debt; I trust that they will find that I have not misrepresented or interpreted their works, recorded in the bibliography, too clumsily.
Such a book relies upon good libraries, and in this I have been most fortunate. The Biblioteca Bartolomé March near the cathedral in Palma is the best repository of secondary material on Mallorca and contains a great many primary sources too. No one writing about Mallorca can avoid using its facilities. I owe a great debt to its director, Snr. Fausto Roldán Sierra, and his attentive staff, who coped patiently with my halting Spanish. Without this library and its excellent service and working conditions, this book would not have been possible. Biblioteca March is as libraries ought to be: spacious, quiet and not dominated by the ubiquitous computer. I would like to thank Dr Gonçal López Nadal for introducing me to its charms.
Nonetheless, computers are a vital part of the armoury of any writer today. Those serving the catalogue of the University Library at Cardiff were essential for much of the contextual research that lies behind this book. The stock and the staff of the Arts and Social Sciences Library, in particular, proved most helpful to me.
Mallorca is fortunate in having a fine system of municipal libraries, and two of them provided material and good working conditions. That at Manacor is housed in one of the ranges of the sixteenth century convent of Sant Vicenç Ferrer. Where else can you work looking out over late medieval cloisters with the scent of orange blossom wafting up from below and the sound of a cock crowing in the near distance? That at Artà is located in a splendid eighteenth century house (Na Batlessa) given to the town, and many a morning I sat working in its cool reading room listening to the quiet chatter of mothers and their children in the sunny street outside.
Two Mallorcan colleagues require special thanks: Dr. Gonçal López Nadal of the Institute of Economic History at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB) and Professor Isobel Moll i Blanes, Professor Emeritus of Contemporary History of the same institution. Their conversation and erudition have guided me to sources I would never have found otherwise. Both have read early drafts of parts of this book, helping to ensure that I avoided many infelicitous mistakes in my understanding of Mallorcan history. Dr López Nadal was especially helpful with a revision of Chapter 8 . More to the point, both have become good friends.
My former colleague and good friend, Dr Michael Barke, Reader in Human Geography at Northumbria University, also gave up valuable time to read an early draft, and his perceptive comments have made this a better book.
Dr Volker Stalmann provided many stimulating conversations on the origins of talayots and navetes and provided Fig. 8. 2 .
The maps and diagrams have been expertly drawn by Alun Rogers of the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University.
Thanks to Yvonne Owens for help with word processing.
I am indebted to Francesc Carulla Riera of Estop S. A. for permission to use the aerial photos in this book and to the doyen of Mallorcan photography, Andreu Muntaner Darder, for permission to use material from his unrivalled archive.
In drawing upon so many published sources there is always a danger that proper acknowledgement in the references and endnotes may have been overlooked. However, I believe all the material used in this book falls within the sphere of ‘fair dealing’ and the usual academic protocols. Should any writer or publisher feel otherwise I, and the publishers, would be pleased to hear from them.
Finally, my partner Hawys Pritchard, herself an accomplished Hispanist and translator, has given me much encouragement in writing this book. Her affectionate tolerance of my frequent absences in various libraries and in the field when I should really have been with her are much appreciated.
No fellowships, scholarships, bursaries or research grants have been consumed in the research and writing of this book.
In the end the usual caveats and riders apply, namely, any errors are mine alone.
Palmasol, Mallorca and Cowbridge, Wales
March 1st 2012
Dia de les Illes Balears and Dydd Gwyl Dewi
Preface
This book is the outcome of visiting and living in Mallorca on and off for more than twenty years. Early visits were as a tourist, one of about one and a half million Britons who visited the island annually in the late 1980s. Initially stays were in small hotels or rented villas, but with buying a house longer visits could be contemplated. In the mid-1980s I undertook fieldwork and some more extensive research into the tourist industry. This also enabled me to make contact with Mallorcan geographers and those involved commercially and