Franco – The Mallorca Photo Blog

Air Attacks Over Palma in 1937

75 years ago this week, there were two days of severe air attacks over Palma, coming from the Republican resistance to the military putsch of the Falangist movement. Plenty of damage […]

Architecture

The Invasion That Never Came

You will probably have seen the bunkers on the beach of Es Trenc, strange and somewhat brutal reinforced dugouts made of concrete. They are a bit of an eyesore. The shelters were […]

History

Memories of a Dark Past

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the assassination of Emili Darder Cànaves (Mayor of Palma), Antoni Mateu Ferrer (former Mayor of Inca, below right), Antoni Maria Qués Ventanyol (founder of […]

History

The Aeròdrom Militar de Pollença

Mallorca has three airports; did you know? There is Son Sant Joan, there is Son Bonet, and there is an airbase in Port de Pollença. The Aeròdrom Militar de Pollença […]

History

Prisoners of War Camps in Mallorca

In a blog entry a couple of years ago, I reported about a number of Concentration Camps in Mallorca. Perhaps that term was a bit harsh. Perhaps one should call […]

Felanitx

Ruthless in Felanitx

The largest and most imposing tomb in Palma’s Municipal cemetery houses the remains of Juan March Ordinas and his clan. The Palma cemetery is well worth a visit and once […]

Architecture

How Mallorca’s Highest Peak Was Robbed of 9 m in Altitude

In 1953, Spain’s dictatorial leader, Francisco Franco, signed a deal […]

Architecture

The Mysterious Obelisk Towers in Badia d’Alcúdia

If ever you walk along some or other stretch of […]

History

Whilst Spain’s democracy is busy celebrating General Elections today, November 20th, this is also the date of an anniversary. Thirty-six years ago today, Francisco Franco died, the autocratic dictator of […]

Customs & Traditions

Playing Monte

I don’t see my friend Jaume very often, these days. He’s getting on a bit, being in his late eighties, and he rarely leaves home any more. There were times […]

Beaches

Contraband in Cala Murada

Cala Murada on the East Coast is as strange a place as you will ever find in Mallorca. When I first went there, some thirty years ago, elderly people sat […]

Mallorca

Sleeping Rough

More people than ever, certainly more than over the last 35 years since Franco died, are sleeping it rough on the streets of Palma. Some have even made the Palma […]

History

18 July 1936

July 18th, 1936, was a fateful day, when the Spanish Guerra Civil (civil war) began 75 years ago today. Actually, the putsch had started the day before, on the 17th […]

Daily Life

The Ni-Ni Generation

Spain is a very particular country. Having lived here, in Mallorca, for close to 24 years I cannot but notice that everything and everyone everywhere is different from anywhere else […]

History

The Muro de la Memoria

Last Friday, a memorial was inaugurated for the henceforth unnamed victims of the Guerra Civil (Spanish Civil War) in Palma’s Cementerio Municipal (municipal cemetery). I went to the cemetery yesterday […]

History

The Spanish Second Republic

Eighty years ago this week, in April 1931, the Spanish Segunda República (Second Republic) was proclaimed. Earlier that year, King Alfonso XIII had abdicated as a consequence of massive civil […]

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