Talayotic Megalithic Culture

Deep-time settlement, megalithic and Bronze/Iron-Age ritual landscapes before recorded states.

1 chapter

-123 - 902

This era ties the islands to Roman imperial networks (after 123 BCE) and later to Byzantine Christianization. Walk the Roman city of Pol·lèntia in Alcúdia to see urban life and a theatre; then shift to early Christian rural basilicas like Son Peretó (near Manacor) and Sa Carrotja (near Porto Cristo), which mark a Christian sacred landscape already in place before the Islamic period.

902 - 1229

As part of al-Andalus, the Balearics (Mayurqa/Majorca and the Pityusic islands) lived centuries under Islamic rule, including periods of independence as the Taifa of Mayurqa. The Islamic city left material traces in Palma’s Banys Àrabs (Arab Baths) and in the Palau de l’Almudaina’s Moorish fabric later adapted by Christian rulers. Note that conquest timings differ across islands: Mallorca and Ibiza fell to James I in 1229–1235, but Menorca remained under Muslim rule until 1287.

1229 - 1516

With the Crown of Aragon’s expansion (James I’s campaigns), the archipelago was integrated into a Christian-Catalan legal and liturgical order. The conquest is still ritually remembered in Palma’s Festa de l’Estendard on 31 December, a civic-church procession that exposes how memory of 1229 remains contested today. Parish life and new cathedrals reorganized the ritual year across the islands (with Menorca’s definitive conquest in 1287).

1516 - 1939

Under Habsburg and then Bourbon Spain, the islands were drawn into Mediterranean wars and trade. Menorca’s cession to Britain (1713) and subsequent transfers left visible marks in Mahón’s architecture and in durable customs like tea-drinking and the local gin tradition (pomada), which now lace through the patronal summer fiestas. These influences add a distinct 18th‑century layer to Menorcan celebrations still performed under medieval-style caixers’ protocols.