Palma - Almacenes El Águila

Mallorca is the largest island in the Mediterranean Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain. Mallorca is an extremely popular holiday destination. The Palma de Mallorca Airport, one of the busiest in Spain, is used by about 30 million tourists per year.

Palma is the political and economic center of the autonomous region of the Balearic Islands. Palma is a Roman foundation from the time the island was occupied by the Roman Empire in 123 BC. Almost half of the island´s population of more than 890.000 today live in Palma.

From Between 902 and 1229 the city was under Islamic control. It was conquered after three months of siege in December 1229 by the troops of James I of Aragon ( aka "Jaume el Conqueridor"). Palma became the capital of the Kingdom of Majorca. After Jame´s death, Palma became joint capital of the Kingdom, together with Perpignan. The Aragonese expanded the city, so that at its heyday in the 16th century it had around 40,000 inhabitants.

Around the turn of the century, Palma was a wealthy city and so the citizens could afford to contract famous Catalan architects, known for the Modernisme Català, a specific form of the Art Nouveau. Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch have worked in Palma and there are numerous beautiful buildings in the inner city.

The former El Águila department store was designed by Gaspar Bennássar and Jaume Alenyar in 1908. Since it was a commercial building, appropriate solutions had to be found to make the most of the space and interior lighting. Iron was used as a decorative element. The result was a facade with large windows and doors that attract attention and allow plenty of daylight to flow into the building.