Palma - Basílica de San Miguel

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.

San Miquel was built after the Reconquista from 1229 on the site of the great mosque of Madina Mayurqa. In 1390 a larger new building was built in the Gothic style.

The single-nave church has a Gothic portal begun in 1398 by the Pere de Sant Joan. The tympanum has the Virgin with the Child and two angels. The most interesting statue is on the left. The sculpture depicts Ramon Llull.

Ramon Llull (1232 – 1315) was a mathematician, polymath, philosopher, logician, writer from the Kingdom of Mallorca. He is credited with writing the first major work of Catalan literature and considered a pioneer of computation theory, especially given his influence on Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.

Since his first writings, there has been confusion regarding whether he was a saint or a heretic. Spanish King Philipp II. was fond of his work and used parts of it in the creation of the Monasterio del Escorial. Prior to that, Llull was considered a heretic by most. Llull's works were prohibited by the Spanish Inquisition.

Llull urged the study of Arabic and other languages in Europe. He travelled through Europe to meet with popes, kings, and princes, trying to establish colleges to prepare future missionaries. In 1276 a language school for Franciscan missionaries was founded at Miramar.

About 1291 he went to Tunis, preached to the Saracens, disputed with them in philosophy. He returned in 1308. He finally achieved his goal of linguistic education in 1311 when the Council of Vienne ordered the creation of chairs of Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic at the universities of Bologna, Oxford, Paris, and Salamanca.

In 1314, at the age of 82, he travelled again to North Africa where he was stoned by an angry crowd of Muslims in Tunis. Merchants took him back to Mallorca, where he died in Palma the following year.

Within the Franciscan Order Llull is honoured as a martyr. He was beatified in 1847 by Pope Pius IX.