Right next the palace of La Almudaina in Palma de Mallorca there are The Arab Baths (Banys Àrabs). They are in the courtyard of the brollador and the gardens are surroounding the walled enclosure. They can be accessed via Ca'n Serra street corner with Convert of the Cathedral. There can be seen there lush gardens of Ca'n Fontirroig, home to Sardinian warblers, house sparrows, cacti, palm trees, and a wide range of flowers and ferns.
Actually there is a small two-roomed brick building that once housed the bath and was mostly used by the moors. This facility is, in fact, of Byzantine origin, dating back to the 11th century and possibly once part of the home of a Muslim nobleman. The bath room has a cupola with five oculi which let in dazzling light. The twelve columns holding up the small room were pillaged from an earlier Roman construction. The floor over the hypocaust has been worn away by people standing in the centre, mainly to photograph the entrance and the garden beyond it. The whole room is in a rather disreputable condition. The other room is a brick cube with a small model of the baths as they once were in the corner. Unfortunately one of the columns in this model has fallen over.
In the Middle Ages the waters of Palma Bay came up to the palace walls and it was possible to board a boat from the king's tower.
La Almudaina is currently used by the king as an official residence for state ceremonies and receptions during the summer.
This royal castle located in Majorca's capital has its earliest origins in megalithic settlements. It became a Roman castrum, the residence of Muslim Walis and later that of the Christian kings or their representatives. It has alaways been the seat of political power on the island owing to its privileged location overlooking the bay and city of Palma.
The castle, built during the caliphal period, was captured by James I of Aragon when he conquested the island in 1229. He remodelled the following year to make it the seat of the prosperous kingdom of Majorca, which also included Rousillon.
The access to the palace is through Porta Major in the facade opposite the Cathedral, which leads to the main courtyard or parade ground. On the left of it is the Tinell or Sala Major, a large hall built at the begining of the 14th century, and opposite stands St Anne's Chapel. The wqestern side of the Tinell leads into the Palau del Senyor Rei (King's Palace), which occupies a large, rectangular tower with three floors. Behind the Chapel is the courtyard of the "brollador" (water spout), on whose western side is located the Palau de la Senyora Regina (Queen's Palace), which extends across the whole of the facade that looks onto the Hort del Rei (King's Garden) and Rambla.
