The Serra de Tramuntana of Mallorca. Physical and human landscape

Abstract

The Serra de Tramuntana covers 1,041 km2 distributed in eighteen municipalities, more than a quarter of the surface of the island. It is the most rugged part of the island due to the asymmetric thrust faults whose edges from the Jurassic frequently exceed the 1,000 m of altitude. The limestone formation explains a rich variety of karst forms and conditions a peculiar water circulation. Most of the numerous endemic plants of the Balearic islands are concentrated in this mountainous region. The olive tree, one of the productions of the Mediterranean trilogy, anticipated by V. Mut (xvii century), is the best adapted to the sierra, in large properties. The oil trade, very active until the nineteenth century, was the economic base of the farms. The strategic aspect of the sierra is made concrete in the castles rockers and on an episode of 1594 with a draft of deportation of people from the “useless” to shelters mountaineers. The spiritual isolation of the mountain has promoted several sites as the shrine of Lluc. In this paper two coastal villages are analyzed together with three other villages resulting from the aggregation of different smaller nucleus.

Keywords: Mallorca, mountain, olive growing, population, defense.