France Guide
The Pyrenees
Palais des Rois de Majorque
Opening time: Daily: June– Sept 10am–6pm; Oct– May 9am–5pm
Price: €4
A twenty-minute walk southwest through place des Esplanades brings you to the main entrance of the Palais des Rois de Majorque, crowning the hill that dominates the southern part of the old town. Although Vauban's walls surround it now, and it's suffered generally from ongoing military use until 1946, the two-storey palace and its partly arcaded courtyard date originally from the late thirteenth century. Thanks to the Spanish influence, there's a finesse to the Gothic-Moorish architecture and detailing – for instance in the carved ceiling of the loggia to the queen's apartments, and the Islamic-influenced fresco fragments in the chapel – that you don't often find in heavier northern styles. There are frequent worthwhile temporary exhibits in the former king's apartments.