Palma Cathedral (La Seu)

In front of you is La Seu, the cathedral that Mallorcans have been gazing at from the sea for seven centuries. Its silhouette above the walls is the island's most recognisable image, and that is no accident: it was designed to be seen from the bay.

1A cathedral on top of a mosque

After the conquest of 1229, James I the Conqueror ordered a great church dedicated to Saint Mary to be built over the main mosque of Madina Mayurqa, which was demolished bit by bit as the work advanced. The decisive push came from his son James II, who in his will of 1306 asked to be buried in the Trinity Chapel, the first part to be built.

Construction went on for more than three hundred years; the main doorway was finished in 1601. The result is a Gothic hall church with a central nave about 44 metres high, one of the tallest in Europe, and a rose window almost 14 metres across.

2Gaudí's turn

Between 1904 and 1914, commissioned by Bishop Pere Campins, Antoni Gaudí reorganised the interior. He moved the choir out of the middle of the nave, opened up the view to the altar and hung a canopy that is only a model of the final version, which was never made.

What you see is a medieval cathedral and, at the same time, a laboratory of Modernisme.

Visits inside usually require a ticket; check the official website before you go in.

3What to look for

• The buttresses with double flying arches, rare in Mediterranean Gothic.
• The lake, a reminder that the sea once reached the foot of the wall.
• The Almudaina Palace, right next to the cathedral: civil and religious power side by side.