Ca´n Campaner

Description

The house maintains the medieval and renaissance-style character, specially visible in the coronella windows that open on the façade facing the Capuchinas street. The main façade, facing the Ca´n Campaner street, has three floors in height with a lintelled, rounded arch portal. The ground floor shows a renaissance window to the left, characterised by delicate pillars and with the Garau coat of arms between two water taps and featuring two masks, one at each end. On the first floor, to the left and above the renaissance window, a Gothic window with a conopial mark and flower decoration. Further to the right we can appreciate three balcony windows. The porch shows smaller, circular columns. The façade facing the Capuchinas street still features a blind, rounded arch, that witnesed the previous house. To the left, three linear Gothic windows; on the second floor, a fantastic group of three coronella windows can be admired, with two smaller columns and with three small arches each, as well as tworenaissance windows.

The patio is the result of several refurbishments throughout time; the last one is still quite recent. The lobby features a wooden coffered ceiling. To the left, the garage door, that continues in form of a, partially recovered, pointed arch. To the right, a portal with a staircase. A huge segmental arch follows, exhibiting on its capitals the coat of arms of the Rossinyol family, that leads to the open patio.
Just to the left, a staircase leads up, while on the right, another arch opens. At the end of the patio, we find the main staircase with an iron handrail and plain balustrades; on the first stair landing, to the right, a segmental arch and at the end of the corridor, a further similar arch.

Historical Reference

According to the historian Mn. Antoni Pons: Ca´n Garau d´Aixartell (or Ca´n Campaner) appears as "numbered with the number 1 of Campaner street, corner with the Capuchinas street, characterised by broad living rooms, high ceilings and graceful coronella windows in the exterior. In the studio, we can still admire a window built in Renaissance style, decorated with a plain, rampant lion that was the emblem of the Garau family" (Pons, Antoni: 246).

By the middle of the XVIth century, the house belonged to Miquel Garau Ramiro, who was married to Margalida Aixartell in the year 1552.

The name of the house derives from this matrimony. He was the brother of canon Jeroni Garau, founder of the Casa de la Caridad (House of Charity) and who gave name to the house block. The mansion dates back to 1575, was situated in the Garau canon house block and was valued in 2,600 Majorcan pounds. The son of Miquel, Antoni Agustí Garau d´Aixartell, was granted the title of gentleman in the year 1587. In the year 1624, it was the grandson of Miquel Garau, Miquel Jeroni Garau d´Aixartell i Sanglada, who obtained a noble title. The saga ends in the year 1803 with Antoni Garau d´Aixartell i Gual-Despuig.

References:

- Pons, Antoni: Història de Mallorca. ("History of Mallorca") Vol. IV, p. 246
- Murray-Pascual: La casa y el tiempo ("The House and Time" - 1988), Volume II, p. 320
- GEM VI, 157.
- Catalogue of the Town Hall of Palma, 2005.