‘PALMA DE MALLORCA’ (PALM OF MAIORCA)
What I am going to share with you today is a beautiful story, and what makes stories beautiful (apart from the content) it is always the details. Let’s start with the name of the Italian town, which most people won’t know much about, Ascoli Piceno, a small town in central Italy. Then we take the name of the leading actor in Ridley Scott’s famous film Gladiator, Russell Crowe, and finally that of my friend from Ascoli, Pierfrancesco, with whom I shared university in Bologna and by pure chance met again after twenty years here in Mallorca as a restaurateur, with a beautiful chiringuito on the beach.
One summer morning, as I opened the newspaper, I read a surprising piece of news: in Ascoli, in the Piazza del Popolo, the former Gladiator had made a statement that had enraptured the crowd present: “My ancestor Luigi Ghezzi left Italy, a long time ago, in 1850. He left Ascoli and never returned. But tonight I have returned home and I am a man of Ascoli”.
So, caught up in the enthusiasm of that statement, I sent a message to my friend from Ascoli: “Russell Crowe is Ascolian!“, his reply opened my eyes to a small world that had given its name to the place where I live and where the Hotel BonSol was born no less than 71 years ago: “if you are surprised by this news, go and have a look at the origin of the name Palma di Maiorca“. So intrigued by his answer I went and took a look at Wikipedia under Palma de Mallorca:
“Palma was a Picene and later Roman city, founded in the 6th century BC. The city was probably named after the extensive presence of palm trees in the area. It stood on a hillside south of the mouth of the river Ete and was known for having a strategic port of prime importance for trade across the Adriatic. The Picene city of Palma probably had its toponym transferred to the island of Mallorca to give its name to the Roman colony of Palma, now the island’s capital. It is likely that the island was populated by Picene colonists who reasonably would have named the new colonies after their original territory (and so, too, the Picene city of Pollenza gave its name to the Mallorcan city of Pollentia)”.
What is perhaps even more incredible about this story is that my wife and I got married in Torre di Palme, a small town in the Marche that takes its origins from the ancient Pictish city of Palma, which centuries later gave its name to Palma de Mallorca. But what united these ancient Roman colonies?
The presence of palm trees. The Mediterranean basin is rich in vegetation made up of the Phoenix genus, especially present in Mallorca with two species: the dwarf palm (Chamaerops humilis) and the Canary Island palm (Phoenix canariensis).
The dwarf palm, native to the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, has had various uses over the centuries. It was used to make ropes for making fishing coffins, saddlebags, mats and brooms. Over time, production was refined in favour of the true art of palm weaving, for hats, bags, religious and artistic objects, just think of Joan Miró’s beautiful “Sol de Palmas“ or the representation of the palm tree itself in the painting “La Casa de la Palmera” (The House of the Palm Tree).
For the Romans it represented victory, for the Greeks it was a symbol of glory offered to the winners of games or to warriors who had distinguished themselves in battle, a palm leaf was a sign of great respect.
The tradition of palm leaf craftsmanship in Mallorca is still alive, both for religious purposes during Palm Sunday and for ornamental and above all artistic purposes.
I recommend that you see for yourself by taking a stroll through the narrow streets of Palma’s old town, specifically along Calle de la Concepció, 17, where you will find an old espadrille shop called “Alpargatería la Concepción“, where in addition to its famous espadrilles, you will also find handmade palm baskets, as tradition dictates. Maria and Aurora, the owners and managers, will guide you through a world of craftsmanship that has been handed down from generation to generation and we can only be immensely grateful to mother and daughter for keeping alive the small cultural heritage that originated in a distant Roman colony called Palma and that has survived to the present day. Not to be outdone, this famous espadrille shop has created a limited edition of splendid beach baskets for BonSoul with “llengües mallorquines“ weaving, which you will soon find in our online shop. Stay tuned!