Whilst Mallorca this year celebrates the 800th anniversary of Rei Jaume I‘s birth in 1208, he never was the King of Mallorca. Jaume I is credited with the Re-Conquista in 1229, when at the age of 21 he took the island of Mallorca back from the hands of the Moors. He came to Mallorca as the King of Aragón.
His younger son Jaume II was crowned as the first King of Mallorca after the conqueror’s death in 1276. Between 1295 and 1300, eleven pueblos were founded under Jaume II: Algaida, Binissalem, Campos, Felanitx, Llucmajor, Manacor, Montuïri, Porreres, Sa Pobla, Selva and Santanyí, to accommodate Mallorca’s growing population. Jaume II died in 1311, at the age of 68 years.
Jaume II was buried in the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca. In 1779, the sarcophagus (shown in this photo) was created on orders of King Carlos III, to hold the remains of the first Mallorcan King. The Catalan artist Antoni Gaudí had the sarcophagus removed in 1904, though, as he wanted to design new tombs for the kings of Mallorca, as part of his plans to redesign Palma’s cathedral, but Gaudí’s tombs were never made. Instead, Jaume II and Jaume III were reburied in 1946 in neogothic crypts inside the Capilla de la Trinidad, again in the cathedral.
The interim sarcophagus is now vacant and can be seen on exhibition at the Museu Diocesà in Palma.
The photo was chosen from my archive. It was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: April 11th, 2008. The time was 13:22:47.
