The Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca is called La Seu in Mallorquín. The basilica is also known under the names of Cathedral of the Sea, Cathedral of Space and Cathedral of Light.

The catedral is indeed a place where you can see and feel the light unlike any other place. La Seu was built with 87 stain glass windows and 5 rose windows, giving the spaceous cathedralis a very spectacular play of sunlight at any time of the year. Twice a year, and every year for that matter for now over 400 years, there can be seen a special and indeed, magnificent performance of light. Today (November 11th, Sant Martí) is one of those two days, the other date being February 2nd (fiesta de la Candelaria).

Thanks to the ingenuity of medieval builders, architects, mathematicians and astrologers, on these two days, the early morning sunlight enters through the large rose window on the Cathedral’s eastern façade, presenting a most colourful impression on the opposite wall, right below the smaller rose window above the Cathedral’s main portal. This most spectacular display occurs for a few minutes only at around 09h00 local time, but as we have recently finished Summer time, it now means 08h00.

I found a nicely made video of this delightful play of light on the Internet (see below). The video is in Catalan with at times funny English subtitles. It’s worth watching though, if you can’t see the original spectacle. If you would like to see the real thing and missed today’s performance, the next implementation will occur in less than three months. There is also another video on YouTube on the same festival of light, done by mallorcaquality. That one is without any comments, but the first one, I think, is more informative.

The photo (top) was chosen from my archive. It was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: April 7th, 2008. The time was 14:26:49. The photo (centre) was taken in Palma de Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: November 11th, 2009. The time was 08:21:46. The video was taken from the Internet, courtesy of sigoloX and YouTube.

Moltes gràcies, and Thank you very much.