Ajuntament de Palma – The great house, the house of Cort

Originally the courthouse, the building that is currently home to Palma City Council is located in the nerve centre of the city, where its heartbeat can best be heard: Plaça de Cort. A lively square, with its terraces and where local people gather to celebrate major events like Christmas or the Sant Sebastià patron saint festival, among others.

The building is an example of the architectural fusion that characterises Palma’s old quarter, with Gothic, Baroque and Modernist features. Its art gallery is also notable, particularly its gallery of paintings of illustrious men from the Kingdom of Mallorca. A curiosity with a local accent? When looking at the Ajuntament, note the stone bench on the façade: it is known as the ‘banco del perezoso’ (the lazy man’s bench) or the ‘banco del sinofos’ The reason for this is that locals would sit on this bench to sunbathe rather than go to work. And they would always have an excuse not to go, which they would explain using a typical Mallorcan expression: “si no fos per…” (hence, ‘Sinofos’), meaning “if it weren’t for…”. By the way, if you are not feeling too lazy, you can see who is the first to spot the snail and the dragon on the façade of the building. Clue: they are very near a doorway…