living mallorca

The Can Corbella building sits right opposite Palma’s town hall, at the end of Carrer Jaume II and edging Plaça de Cort in central Palma. It is one of Palma’s most unique buildings due to its New Moorish style (neomudéjar in Spanish) in the pre-Modernism era, with horseshoe arches and dazzling stained-glass windows. Built at the end of the XIX century by architect Nicolau Lliteras, it is actually composed of three buildings unified by an only façade that acts as the buildings’ skin, which makes them look like an individual building.

Modernism flourished as a phenomenon of cultural and artistic renovation following the new economic and social classes generated after the Industrial Revolution especially in France, Germany, Great Britain, Austria and Italy. In Spain, it mainly affected Catalonia, although due to the strong relationship between Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, we can see great examples of it in this region (mainly in Palma, Sóller and Lluc).

It is home of Real Madrid’s store in Palma today and it still keeps a beautiful door just behind the counter, however there was a chemist store called Drogueria Corbella when works began on the façade, so the building shared its name with the shop until 1985, when it eventually disappeared.