Plaça Major

Today it is a square of café terraces and street music. But until 1823, on this very spot, stood the headquarters of the Inquisition tribunal in Mallorca. What happened within its walls marked part of Mallorcan society for three centuries.

1The conversos

After the attack of 1391 and the forced conversion of 1435, many families of Jewish origin lived as Christians; some secretly kept up practices of their old faith. The Inquisition reached the island in 1488 and pursued them for generations.

2The autos-da-fé of 1691

In 1691, after years of trials, autos-da-fé were held in which 88 people were condemned. Thirty-seven were executed. Three of them, Rafel Valls and the siblings Rafel Benet and Caterina Tarongí, were burned alive on 6 May, outside the city walls, in the area of today's Plaça Gomila. The chronicles speak of thousands of onlookers.

Their descendants were called Xuetes, and for centuries they suffered segregation and contempt.

A book published that same year, La fee triunfante, by the Jesuit Francesc Garau, perpetuated the stigma. In 1782 Charles III banned the insults and segregation, although discrimination took much longer to disappear. In 2011 the Balearic government publicly apologised for those events.

As you leave, walk down Carrer de l'Argenteria, the silversmiths' street, where many Xueta families lived.

3What to look for

• The arcades, built after the Inquisition building was demolished.
• The stairways leading down towards La Rambla and the Teatre Principal.
• Carrer de l'Argenteria, south of the square.