Crafts that endure: artisan workshops in the heart of Palma
Palma was built street by street, trade by trade. Long before the city lived off tourism, it lived off hands: the hands of those who tanned leather, wove wicker, embroidered thread or shaped clay. Those trades gave their names to entire streets of the old town — Sa Calatrava itself grew as a tanners' quarter in the shadow of the Dalt Murada — and, against all odds, some of these workshops are still open, their shutters raised every morning by the same family that has run them for generations.
Walking these streets today in search of them is a different way of getting to know the city: slower, more honest, far from the repeated shop window of any European old town. If you've already explored Palma's markets to taste the city at street level, this route is its natural continuation: the city made by hand.
La Guilda: pottery in the old tanners' quarter
In the heart of Sa Calatrava, on the narrow Carrer de la Torre de l'Amor — a street that still follows the layout of the old Jewish quarter — Elisa Braem and Julio Varela run La Guilda, a ceramics school and workshop where the studio is in full view as soon as you walk in. It's not a shop in the usual sense: it's a working atelier, with the wheel turning and pieces drying on the shelves, that also doubles as a concept store. You can drop in for a single class, sign up for a course, or simply watch clay take shape a few metres from where leather was once worked. If Mallorcan pottery interests you, don't miss our post on siurells, much more than pieces of pottery.
Sombrerería Casa Juliá, hats since 1898
A short walk away, on Carrer del Sindicat — once known as Sa Capelleria for the concentration of hat workshops it housed — Casa Juliá still stands. Founded in 1898 by Francesc Julià, it is now run by the fourth generation of the family, Daniel and Silvia Estela. In 1903 it won the silver medal at the Balearic Exhibition for the quality of its hats; it survived the closure of its factory after the Spanish Civil War and, in 1992, revived the production of the traditional Mallorcan straw hat. Hats, fans, gloves and umbrellas share the same space today, where time, quite literally, seems to move slower.
Mimbrería Vidal, the craft of Carrer de Cordería
The street's name is no accident: in the sixteenth century, Carrer de Cordería was home to more than sixteen workshops dedicated to plant-fibre weaving. Today only one remains, Mimbrería Vidal, run by the Vidal family for seventy years. Tomás Vidal, the third generation, still works wicker, dwarf palm and esparto grass to make baskets, hampers and hats the way they've always been made: by hand, and with patience. It's also one of those crafts that openly admits its own fragility — with no generational handover guaranteed, every visit is a small act of memory too.
Bordados Valldemosa, Palma's last hand embroidery shop
On Carrer de Sant Miquel, now surrounded by chain stores, survives the only traditional embroidery business left in the city. It was opened in 1968 by the Binimelis family to sell the needlework done by the lady of the house; Joan Binimelis later rode his Vespa around the island selling table linens to hotels. The shop window, almost untouched since it opened, still displays Mallorcan needlepoint, crochet and the popular roba de llengües fabric turned into cushions, bags and purses.
A walk that starts at Es Princep
These four workshops can all be visited on foot, unhurried, in a single morning from the hotel: just cross the old city wall and get lost in Sa Calatrava and the neighbouring streets of the old town. It's one of those routes you won't find in any standard guidebook, yet it explains, better than any other, why Palma remains, against all odds, a city with a trade to its name. And if the heat catches up with you, you can always finish the morning with views from our rooftop.
