La Llotja & Es Puig de Sant Pere

The neighbourhood takes its name from this building. Guillem Sagrera built it between 1426 and 1452 as a merchants’ exchange, home to the Col·legi de Mercaders, the merchants’ guild, and for a time the island administration. Palma was then one of the western Mediterranean’s leading trading ports, and the building was intended to show it.

Inside is a single room, divided by six spiral columns without capitals or bases. They rise from the floor and merge directly into the ribbed vaulting. The effect is like a grove of stone palms, so successful that the exchange in Valencia later adopted similar columns.

Above the main doorway stands the angel, patron of the merchants. The west doorway’s tympanum shows the Virgin being crowned by an angel.

Sagrera did not see it finished: a dispute with his clients led him to leave for Naples in 1447, where he worked on Castel Nuovo from 1450.

Today Sa Llotja hosts exhibitions, so opening depends on the programme. Check ahead if you want to go inside — you cannot see the columns from outside.

The hill to the north was once home to sailors and dock workers, with narrow lanes, tall narrow houses and little space. Today flats, small hotels and restaurants sit close together. Carrer Apuntadors is the best-known address and gets busy in the evening.

Palau March, with its sculpture terrace, and Es Baluard, the modern art museum on the old city-wall bastion, are a few minutes away. Both are worth visiting and generally much quieter than the cathedral.

The neighbourhood is quiet, sometimes almost empty, during the day, making it pleasant for museums. From around eight in the evening it changes into one of the old town’s noisiest areas.