The Hidden Courtyards of the Old Town
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The Hidden Courtyards of the Old Town

Palma's noble houses hide their lives behind heavy doors. Twice a year, those doors swing open.

Kattis
Co-founder · Palma
Dec 18, 2025
5 min read

Walk down Carrer de Can Savellà and you'll pass a dozen heavy oak doors. Almost all of them are closed. Behind each one is a patio — a stone courtyard, a well, an arch, a staircase climbing to a piano nobile you'll never see.

Twice a year, during the Ruta dels Patis, they open. You wander in off the street. A grandmother offers you a glass of water. A cat ignores you. You leave feeling slightly transformed.

"The Mallorcan light is its own substance — denser, somehow, than anywhere else."

Kattis
Filed under Hidden Gems