A SPACE LOCATED NEXT TO THE CONVENT OF SANT DOMINGO IN POLLENÇA

These gardens offer a taste of the lush indigenous vegetation and also feature a medieval Gothic tower and a statue of local hero Joan Mas.

This site was given to the town by one of the island's most famous clans, the March family (1), and is dedicated to Joan March Servera, the first-born son of its founder. In return, the Town Council created a public park and a botanical garden, which were completed in the late 1980s.

Although relatively new, the Jardins Joan March actually house part of Pollença's history, which is a medieval Gothic tower that belonged to the mansion of the local Desbrull family. This tower is said to date from the Conquest of Mallorca (2) in the thirteenth century.

Meanwhile, the statue of local hero Joan Mas (1520-1607) immortalises the greatest pirate attack on the town in 1550, which is commemorated in Pollença on 2nd August each year as part of the Fiestas de la Patrona.

Mallorcan vegetation

The trees in this garden epitomise the lush Mallorcan vegetation and include olive trees (the wild variety), yews (with their rows of spiky leaves), orange trees (one of the main fruit trees of the island), carob trees (whose long dark pods produce locust bean gum that has several food uses), dwarf palms (the only palm species native to Europe) and slender cypress trees (which feature on the town's coat of arms).

(1) The March family: One of Spain's most influential families thanks to the success of Joan March Ordinas in the many businesses he ran, some of which were bona fide companies, such as the Trasmediterránea shipping company, whilst others were linked to contraband. Shares are today owned by the investment holding company Corporación Financiera Alba, valued at around 2 billion euros, and its finance arm is the Banca March, founded in 1926 by Juan March Ordinas himself. The family owns numerous estates and mansions, many of them in Mallorca.

(2) Conquest of Mallorca: Determined to conquer Mallorca and annex it to the Crown of Aragon (which back then included present-day Catalonia and Aragon), King Jaime I landed in the town of Santa Ponsa (southwest of Mallorca) in September 1229 with a 150-strong fleet of warships and the intention to expel the Moors from the island. After fierce fighting, he managed to take hold of the then capital Madina Mayurqa, now Palma de Mallorca, on 31st December, even though some Moors remained in Mallorca and stood strong in the Sierra de Tramuntana until the complete conquest of the island in 1332.