Bellver Castle
Bellver Castle is one of the few circular castles in Europe and is the oldest one of its kind. It is managed by Palma City Council. Inside, you can find Palma’s History Museum. The castle and the tribute tower are surrounded by a moat.
It was built at the beginning of the 14th century for King James II of Mallorca. As a fortification, it suffered several sieges: the first of them in 1343, during Peter IV of Aragon's campaign to reincorporate the Mallorcan territories to the Crown of Aragon; then in 1391 during an anti-Semitic peasant revolt; and again in 1521 after an assault during the Mallorcan second Revolt of the Brotherhoods.
It is located on a hill 112 metres above sea level, in an area surrounded by a Mediterranean pine forest.
Inside the castle it is important to highlight the circular inner yard. It has a well in the middle, which indicates that there is an underground tank to store water. The palace itself is structured as a two-story building around the central yard. All its dependencies face this yard through a gallery with Gothic semi-circular arches.
For its construction, the stone was mainly extracted from a quarry cave located in the same hill, under the fortification.
At the beginning, and as it had initially been planned, the castle was used as the place of residence of King James II, King Sancho and King James III of Mallorca. King John I of Aragon also lived there, escaping from the plague that was devastating the continent.
Being an enclosed site, from the late 14th century onwards, it was also used as a prison, firstly to lock Queen Violant, her children James and Isabella and other supporters of King James III of Mallorca after his death in the Battle of Llucmajor.
In the 19th century, during the Spanish Independence War, it was used to hold political prisoners, the most famous of these being the minister Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, who was the first to make a description of the castle and commissioned the first plans and drawings.
In the 20th century, about 800 Republican political prisoners were locked in the castle, among which it is important to highlight the former mayor of the city, Emili Darder, who was later shot.