Sóller

The valley was settled long before the town took shape — three bronze statues of the 4th or 3rd century BC found at the Roca Roja are kept in the Museum of Mallorca — and the old street plan of Sóller is of Islamic origin. The first parish church dates from before 1236. Hemmed in by the Serra de Tramuntana, the valley was cut off from the rest of Mallorca by land, and its trade looked out to sea, above all to merchants arriving from France.

That exposure brought danger. On 11 May 1561 a fleet of Algerian corsairs landed to attack Sóller; the islanders marched out towards the port and drove them back to the cliffs. Local memory honours the women of Can Tamany, who tricked and killed the pirates who broke into their house, and a band of outlaws whose part in the fighting earned them a pardon from Philip II. Part of the town was then fortified, though only a fragment of wall survives beside the church.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries many people emigrated, to Puerto Rico and France and also to Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and some took part in the settlement of French Algeria. Those who returned rich founded the Banco de Sóller in 1889 and built Modernista houses on the Gran Via. Profits from the orange and lemon trade paid for the railway to Palma in the early 20th century, followed by the tram to the port. A road tunnel opened in 1997, ending the long climb over the Coll de Sóller.

Sóller's identity was shaped by its isolation and by its people's travels abroad. The houses of returned emigrants, with the Art Nouveau styles of fin-de-siècle France, still line the Gran Via, and Can Prunera, a Modernista townhouse of 1911, is now a museum. Mallorcan Catalan is spoken in daily life.

The great festival is the Firó in May, which recalls the pirate raid of 1561. Four battles are re-enacted — two in the port, one in the orchards and one in the town square — as locals dressed as turbaned pirates or as islanders in traditional dress clash amid fireworks. In August the feast of the patron, Sant Bartomeu, brings bonfires and a correfoc, in which groups of devils invade the square as an allegory of hellfire before the fire brigade drives them back with the correaigua. Since 1980 the dance group Aires Sollerics has run Sa Mostra, an international folklore festival.

Epiphany is a bigger occasion here than Christmas Day: the Three Kings process from the port to the square, throwing sweets to children. The railway and the wooden tram are themselves part of the town's culture, and the railway station includes rooms devoted to Picasso and Joan Miró.

About 13,900 people lived in the municipality in 2025, spread between the town, Port de Sóller, the farming district of L'Horta and the hamlet of Biniaraix. Tourism and the spending of foreign residents are now the main sources of income, and the valley's agriculture continues alongside them, with vegetables, citrus and olives still grown on the terraces and in the orchards.

The town's isolation has eased: the tunnel under the Coll de Sóller opened in 1997 and has been free to use since 2018, bringing Palma within easy reach, and a second tunnel now links the town with the port so that the seafront could be pedestrianised. In summer the trains, trams and coaches arrive full, and the square and the waterfront are busy from morning to night; in winter the valley quietens and the town returns to its own routines.

Life centres on Plaça de la Constitució, the covered market and the streets around them. Local weekly newspapers are published in Catalan, and the life of the town still revolves around its festivals, its associations and the seasons of the orchards.

Sóller's oranges are famous across Mallorca, and the valley's citrus groves, olive groves and vegetable terraces still supply the town. The town has a covered market, and Port de Sóller has its own shops, restaurants and bars.

The cooking is Mallorcan. Tombet layers fried potatoes, aubergines and red peppers and is found in almost every local restaurant, often beside fish or meat. Sobrassada, the island's raw cured pork sausage seasoned with paprika, belongs to the autumn and winter pig slaughter, the matança. Sopes mallorquines are a dish of vegetables, broth and slices of bread; arròs brut is saffron rice cooked with chicken, pork and vegetables; and frita de calamar is fried squid with potatoes.

Bakeries sell the ensaïmada, a spiral pastry made with saïm, a reduced pork lard, and dusted with sugar, and coques, flat breads similar to pizza but without cheese. Panades are pasties of lamb and peas, and robiols are pastries filled with cottage cheese or jam. Olive oil is the main cooking fat, and the island's red wines come from the Binissalem and Pla i Llevant areas.