Palma, Spain
Open House Palma

November 2024

About Open House Palma

Palma is a charming Mediterranean city. It is the capital and largest city of Mallorca and of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands, known for its stunning sunsets and its developed and cosmopolitan society. As an island located in the heart of Europe’s most fought-over sea, Mallorca was subject to numerous invasions and conquests throughout its history, leading to a huge cultural and architectural heritage.

Founded by the Roman Empire in 123 AD, Palma soon became the city par excellence of the territory, and as such it continued in the Arab era (902-1229), then known as Madîna Mayurqa. After the Catalan conquest (1229), the city retained the name, Ciutat de Mallorca, and its geographical location allowed it an extensive commerce with all territories bordering the Mediterranean Sea, which heralded a golden age for the city during the Middle Ages. Over the following centuries, life was quiet and rough on the island, sliding into a provincial obscurity at the mercy of the Spanish mainland. Since the advent of mass tourism in the 1950s, the city has been transformed into a tourist destination, although it still preserves its dazzling landscapes, its ancient traditions, its own language, and its varied architecture.

Roman, Arabic, Catalan, Medieval, Renacentist, Baroque, Modernist and Contemporary, Palma has been shaping its physiognomy over two millennia, and this process of overlapping cultures has given rise to the current city. For the first time in history, more than 80 buildings and spaces, most of them usually closed, will open up during a weekend for citizens to enjoy and experience the most valuable architecture examples of the city at no cost at all. Moreover, talks, workshops, contests and guided tours by hundreds of passionate volunteers will complete the picture.

Open House Palma is organized by a local non-profit organization, founded with the aim of promoting and spreading Palma’s architectural heritage.