History

PREHISTORY

The origins of Felanitx as a settlement date back to the Bronze Age. The first settlers arrived around 2000 BC. They were peaceful people who settled in small communities tending to farming and livestock. They lived in small huts made of stone and tree branches, as well as in natural and man-made caves, and rock shelters. In our township there are some examples, around the Santueri castle and the hill Puig de Sa Mola. Both areas show several caves, as there are the Cova d’es Bous, at the Santueri castle, and Sa Mola d’en Bordoy, at the Puig de Sa Mola. Towards the year 1800 BC they built the first navetas, huge chambers with walls made of large stone blocks and covered with branches and clay. The most remarkable site from that period is the Closos de Can Gaià settlement, in Portocolom.

From the year 1300 BC on, until the Romans conquered the Balearic Islands in 123 BC, the Talayotic Culture evolved. The most characteristic building element of that period are the Talayots, as well as some settlements surrounded by great walls. The Es Rossells settlement in Cas Concos is one of the most significant on the island Mallorca.

ANCIENT HISTORY

Not many remains are preserved from the Roman and Moorish periods, which could help us understand what life was like in the village of Felanitx in those times. All the same, during the works to deepen the Saint Margaret fountain in the year 1975, many pieces of Roman ceramic artifacts were found. In 2015 they also found the remains of a Roman necropolis in the historic centre of the village.

As regards the remains of the Moors in our municipality, there is evidence of a small cluster of houses in the Sitjar (granary) area, about where today there is the market hall; amongst them, the farmhouse Mancorme Abeniara. Some toponyms of Moorish origin still persist, as Binifarda, for example.

Most probably we owe the etymological origin of the toponym Felanitx to one of those cultures too. One theory suggests that the word is of a Moorish origin. According to this hypothesis, the toponym Felanitx comes from the word Felhani or Falhanis, which means depression or deepening. The second theory supports the Latin origin of the toponym, explaining that the name developed from the stem foenum, Poaceae grasses (fenàs, in Catalan), and the suffixes -ale and -icius; the result was foenalicius, the place where there is, or grows, a lot of Poaceae.

During both the Roman and the Moorish periods, the Castell de Santueri served as a stronghold and thus became one of the most significant strategic sites of Felanitx.

MIDDLE AGES

In the year 1229 the Catalan troops led by James I, Count of Barcelona, conquered Mallorca and thus ended the Moorish domination. After the conquest, the king and the knights who had collaborated agreed to distribute the island among them. The first Christian Lord Felanitx had was Nuno Sanç, Count of Roussillon. From then on, many new settlers arrived. By the year 1260, there already were about fifteen houses, more or less clustered together.

In the year 1300 King James II granted the founding charter to Felanitx, along with other Mallorcan villages. Thus, the village Felanitx was formally founded and began to grow and develop around the St. Mary (Santa Maria) church, today the St. Michael (Sant Miquel) parish church. The Santueri castle maintained its relevance as a strategic defence point of the coast and, throughout the Middle Ages, continuous improvement works were carried out.

In 1348 the Black Death spread all over Europe and arrived also to Felanitx, where about 900 people died. Probably motivated by the plague, that year the Jurats (high officials) asked King Peter the Ceremonious for permission to build a small church on top of the mountain already known as Sant Salvador.

In the Middle Ages there were some outstanding Felanitx-born figures such as the master stonemason Guillem Sagrera, builder of Sa Llotja (maritime trade and fish market) in Palma; fray Bartomeu Catany, founder of the General Hospital; and the priest Bartomeu Caldentey, who introduced the printing in Mallorca.

THE EARLY MODERN ERA

By the modern period, during the 16th century, the village Felanitx showed a significant growth, and the number of inhabitants rose to more than 4,000 people. The expansion and development of the town took place at the same time as the movement known as the Germanies (The Revolt of the Brotherhoods) broke out, which began in 1521 and made its presence felt all over the island of Mallorca. It was a conflict between the artisans and the people of the towns on the one hand, and the merchants and lords of Ciutat, the capital city, on the other. Felanitx-born Joanot Colom became the leader of the brotherhoods who fought against the royal troops. He freed the slaves and tried to occupy the town Alcudia. In the end, he was imprisoned in the Bellver castle (Palma) and executed on the 3rd of June 1523. It is also relevant that the Santueri castle was one of the few places on Mallorca to withstand the popular revolt.

Piracy increased at the same time and, from 1570 onwards, they built a watchtower in Portocolom. It stood until it was demolished in 1919.

In the year 1603 the Franciscans founded the Sant Agustin Convent on the outskirts of the town. In 1646 the construction of the present church began and in 1699 the cloister was finished. At the same time, the Sant Salvador church was enlarged, and the monastery hostel was built.

THE LATE MODERN PERIOD

During the 19th century, the economy of Felanitx flourished like never before. The population of the township reached almost 9,000 inhabitants, and the village had over 2,000 houses. However, tragedy struck on a Palm Sunday, the 31st of March 1844, when Sa Timba, the steep wall of the embankment beside the parish church, collapsed. 422 people lost their lives.

The village recovered and, in 1886, Queen Regent Maria Christina granted Felanitx city status. At that time, the town had the third largest population on the island, behind Palma and Manacor, and accounted for 5 % of the whole population of Mallorca. Back then the wine industry was the main source of the economic wealth of Felanitx. The township had the largest area of land used for winegrowing. Towards the end of the century, however, in 1891, phylloxera infested all the vineyards of Felanitx. This led to the decline of the township and caused general misery.

Over the years and well into the twentieth century, economy slowly recovered thanks to farming and livestock. In 1910, the Oenological Institute was established, and, in 1920, the winemaking cooperative Es Sindicat.

During the Second Spanish Republic, many buildings were constructed, such as the town's market hall and the slaughterhouse, as well as most of the schools in the township.

At present, the township of Felanitx lives on farming and commerce as well as, mainly, on tourism.