La Seu (Palma Cathedral)

In its interior you will be able to distinguish different styles and admire the wonderful illumination from its stain-glass windows and the big rose window. We recommend you visit the Diocesan and Cathedral museums.

The erection of Palma cathedral was immediately after the Catalan conquest in 1229. Tradition has it that a storm arose as Jaume I was sailing towards the island. He vowed that if they landed safely he would build a temple in honour of the Virgin.

Therefore the building of what became the Cathedral started at the beginning of the XIV century. This new building was erected on the site of the old Muslim mosque, which became a Christian temple with the arrival of the Catalan troops, and it was used in that way for a long time.

´La Seu´ ´how it is known in Palma ´ started to be built following the design of the construction of that time, taking care of every detail from the beginning.

The oldest part erected granted the wish of Jaume II to be buried in a chapel, which nowadays, corresponds to the apse. In the middle of the XIV century it was decided to raise the temple height, keeping the already built part as a presbytery. This initiative altered substantially the early plan, because the project of being just a one-nave temple became a more complex one of three naves. The director of the works at that time was Jaume Mates. At the end of the same century the works of ´Portal del Mirador´ commenced under Pere Morey´s supervision. This is the architectonic ensemble most outstanding of the period. At the end of the XVI century the erection of the temple was finished, initiating the building of the Portal Mayor (Main Gate). Nowadays, this gate is the only element remaining from the original façade, which was seriously damaged by an earthquake in 1851, and rebuilt in gothic style.

The building of the Cathedral was prolonged for two centuries, in which new contributions, related to the change of work supervisors and the alteration of stylistic tendencies, were shaping a unique and extraordinary temple, which would be consecrated in 1601.