The island’s capital was created in 123 BC, upon the Roman conquest. It is possible that conquerors built the city on the basis of a former Talayotic settlement, with a view over the whole bay, the widest in the whole island. However, there are still no signs of such hypothetical former settlement.

The new city was called Palma. We know little about the subject and it is difficult to do research, since the remains lie beneath the ancient settlement, more specifically, in the neighbourhood of Almudaina. This neighbourhood still preserves the Roman influence seen in its streets, as well as its spirit which the writer Llorenç Villalonga described at the time as such, “this neighbourhood is venerable, noble and silent, with narrow streets and wide houses looking empty”.

The excavations carried out during the last few years have provided  valuable information. One of the most important visible remains is the bottom of the Almudaina Street Arch, part of the gate of a Roman wall. Some of the wall’s remains, which survived well into the 13th century can be found in the garden of the Episcopal Palace inside Can Bordils (Almudaina St, 9) and in the middle wall dividing the houses of Morey St. and Zanglada St. (an open-air example of this can be seen in the courtyard of the building in Morey St, 14). Upon the fall of the Empire, the city underwent a period of decadence until its Islamic conquest at the beginning of the 10th century. The new Muslim rule rebuilt and widened the former settlement and erected its headquarters there, as well as the Almudaina fort, which was separated form the rest of the city by a wall, built on top of the former Roman wall. The city then took the name of Medina Mayurga and grew remarkably, to up to over 20,000 inhabitants. A new section of the wall was built around the city. At the beginning of the 12th century, the city took its definitive shape, and no further changes were made.

In 1114-1115, the Catalan-Pisan attack devastated the medina, which was rebuilt by the Almoravides. Throughout the 12th century, the city’s commercial importance grew, and was intensified by the treaties signed with the republics of Pisa and Genoa, at a time when merchants could dispose of their own facilities. The fairly peaceful occupation of the Almohades in 1203 did not interrupt mercantile traffic, which continued until the Catalan conquest of 1229, after the city had been under siege for over three months. The Christian camp was set up in the city’s northern area, between the wall and the place known today as La Real. The siege is marked by such violent episodes as when Muslims hung Christian prisoners against the wall to be stoned to death by their fellow Christians (miraculously none of them were hit), or when James I responded by ordering dozens of Muslim heads be thrown around the city. In the end, James’s troops entered the Mayurga medina on December 31 through a part of the wall that had collapsed at one of the gates, the «Bab al-Kofol» gate, located at the crossroads between Sant Miquel St. and Avingudes St. today. The war cry the king used to encourage his knights when they drew back in the hands of the besieged is famous, “Shame, knights, shame!”

The extremely violent entry of the Catalan troops resulted in the extinction of most of the former Muslim inhabitants, who were either murdered or forced to flee. Of those who fled, some left the island and others found shelter in the inland mountains. Even the Muslim ruler of the time, Aby Yahya’s fate is unknown. King James threatened to humiliate him by dragging him by the beard when he caught him. The defeated population was replaced by the new colonisers, mostly of Catalan origin who partly filled the demographic vacuum the former inhabitants had left. All traces of Islamic culture disappeared with the Muslim people. The mosques were either turned into churches or demolished, the Moorish atmosphere of the houses gave way to a different urban typology (although the road structure was mostly kept), etc.

While urban life was returning to normal, restoration works were started on the walls, which had suffered damages as a consequence of the siege. The walls stood until the 17th century, when they were replaced by a new structure, following the ancient Islamic design, introducing only a few changes. The new wall and its gates remained until they were gradually demolished at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Today we find avenues in their places, like the authentic ancient city’s ring road, on which modern Palma’s widening was based.

The construction of Seu and the many churches and convents that changed the urban landscape of the Muslim city during the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries were carried out simultaneously. The Islamic city’s destruction process, despite the preservation of many routes and water distribution systems, climaxed in 1403 with the Riera floods, which destroyed hundreds of houses, caused thousands of deaths, and erased several Islamic, post-conquest Gothic buildings. These floods divided the city into today’s Rambla and Born until the current of the constant floods’ course was diverted by construction works which ended in 1615.

For administrative purposes, the renamed city of Majorca (literal Spanish translation of madina Mayurga) was divided into five parishes:  St. Miquel, St. Eulalia, St. Creu, St. Nicolau, and St. Jaume. These gave origin to the old neighbourhoods, each characterised by a specific activity. Fishermen and sailors met around St. Creu, sea merchants met at Drassanes (Shipyards), near Llonja and Consolat, the aristocracy resided around Seu, while the working class and artisans lived in the area of Llevant. The latter later organised themselves into guilds according to the streets. Their names still remain today: Gerreria, Ferreria, Bosseria, Capelleria, Pelleteria, Argenteria, Bastaixos (nowadays called James II), Cereria, etc. Here we also found mercantile activities related to rural production: Pes de sa palla, Sa quartera, Banc de s´oli, Pes de sa farina, etc., whose toponyms still remain.

From an urbanistic point of view, growth took place within the city walls, starting with the reserve of unbuilt land (orchards, cemeteries, etc). Thus, for example, the Jewish quarter and the neighbourhood of Sa Calatrava were built during the 14th Century. It is worth highlighting the regularity in the design of the new urban areas, a fact that reveals a certain town planning. Outside the city walls, the most important public work was the construction of the first wharf in Palma, also started in the 14th century with the purpose of bringing the city closer to the activities carried out in Portopí.