Palma de Mallorca is a city of patios (inner courtyards). All courtyards were open to the street until the beginning of mass tourism in the second half of the twentieth century. Passers-by in the street used to be allowed to enter any patio and help themselves to some water to quench their thirst, a custom that is not adhered to nowadays any longer.
I did another patio tour yesterday, this time covering Palma Alta. One of the dozen or so patios we visited was Ca’n Oms.
During the 16th century, Hug de Berard Palou was the owner of Ca’n Oms, the house shown here. In his time, he occupied various important political positions and is best known for recovering the Archipelago of Cabrera from the Saracens. For this accomplishment, Felipe II granted him a title of nobility. In 1642, his descendants sold Ca’n Oms to Jerònim Doms. His family used Ca’n Oms during the 17th and 18th centuries as their Palma residence. In the 19th century, one of his descendants married Ignacio Truiols Vilallonga of the Marquises de la Torre family who owned Ca’n Oms until 1982 when the Ajuntament de Palma bought the property.
The Ajuntament de Palma offers a boring looking website which on second glance offers a wealth of information about some 60 patios and their historical relevance.
The photos were taken in Palma, Mallorca, Baleares, Spain. The date: June 16th, 2012. The time was 12:08:01 and 11:46:57, respectively.
The Mallorca Photo Blog 
Hi there,
I’m fascinated by your daily blogs and enjoy them immensely. Have you written anything about the Bendinat Military base? We walk there every day and would love to know a bit of the history. I’ve googled it but not much comes up – it might be an interesting subject for you.
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Diane H
hi diane,
thanks for your nice words. i have not written about the military base in bendinat yet but i can tell you that it is called base militar general asensio in spanish. this link may be helpful to find out more about the base:
http://www.diariodemallorca.es/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=2008080700_16_382722__Cultura-base-General-Asensio-acondicionara-como-sede-provisional-custodia-Arxiu-Regne.
yes, i may write about them one day; the problem is that one can not get into the premisses as a non-military person, with the exception of one day per year when they hold a day of open doors.
best wishes,
klaus
Hey Klaus,
Thanks for coming back to me. (We wondered whether the blog was written by a male or a female so that’s cleared that one up!)
We (a group of ex pats all nationalities) meet every morning at 8 with our dogs and we walk around the old prison which is open and becoming very direlict. You can go down into the cells and apparently there is a floor just past the entrance that used to slide back to keep the prisoners inside with a moat all the way around. Also, just past the wasteland there is a garden of rememberance with many trees and little plaques. Someone told me that a number of civilians were excuted under Franco rule. Very interesting. It’s a pity that it’s going to rack and ruin because the grounds could be so beautiful if they were looked after and someone did something about the graffiti.
I really do enjoy the blogs and have passed the link on to so many friends who also enjoy them daily. Really appreciate all your knowledge and hard work.
Regards
Diane