This palace, home of the bishops of Mallorca, keeps one of the strangest objects on the island: a stuffed crocodile that locals call the Drac de na Coca.

1The legend

The story goes that in the 17th century a creature arrived in Palma aboard a merchant ship and hid in the sewers. It came out at night and terrified the neighbours, who took it for a dragon. In 1676 the knight Bartomeu Coc, governor of Alcúdia, came across it on Carrer de la Portella, very close to here, on his way to see his fiancée, and killed it with his sword. He then offered it to her as a token of love. That is why it is the dragon «de na Coca»: the dragon of Coc's lady.

2What the records say

The first reliable fact is more prosaic. By 1718 it is recorded that a family, the Rossellós, brought the stuffed animal out to the door of their house on Plaça de Santa Eulàlia every 31 December. The legend as we know it was spread in the 19th century by the scholar Joaquim Maria Bover, who was related to that family.

It is a tale invented to explain a real object: a crocodile brought from distant lands.

In the 20th century the family gave it to the Diocesan Museum, now the Museum of Sacred Art of Mallorca. Entry usually requires a ticket and is often combined with the cathedral; check the details.

3What to look for

  • The palace doorway, sober, facing the cathedral.
  • The stone crocodile on a nearby cornice, a nod to the legend.
  • The way down towards Carrer de la Portella, where the tale is set.
The stuffed crocodile known as the Drac de na Coca in a museum display case
The Drac de na Coca, on display at the Museum of Sacred Art of Mallorca.
Small sculpture of a crocodile on a cornice of an ochre façade
A stone nod to the Drac de na Coca, on a façade by Plaça del Mirador.

Documented

The stuffed crocodile exists and is kept at the Museum of Sacred Art of Mallorca; by 1718 it was already being displayed every 31 December outside the Rosselló family home.

Oral tradition

The killing of the dragon by Bartomeu Coc in 1676 and the gift to his fiancée are a legend spread in the 19th century to explain the object.

Sources and credits

Museu d'Art Sacre de Mallorca (Diocese of Mallorca); Joaquim Maria Bover, Nobiliario mallorquín (1850); Gran Enciclopèdia de Mallorca, entry «Drac de na Coca».

Photos:

  • Façade of the Bishop's Palace in Palma, home of the Museum of Sacred Art, on Plaça del Mirador: Enric, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • The stuffed crocodile known as the Drac de na Coca in a museum display case: JosepBC, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Small sculpture of a crocodile on a cornice of an ochre façade: Enric, CC BY-SA 4.0.

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