Palma traffic chokes Joan Alcover monument

Traffic and frequent rubbish are choking the space around Palma’s Joan Alcover monument at Plaça de la Reina, beside Hort del Rei. On Friday, 4 September, three cultural groups called on Palma City Council to improve the site. They say its condition falls far short of the poet’s cultural importance.

Obra Cultural Balear, ARCA and Palma XXI have written to the mayor, Jaime Martínez, urging the council to examine improvements and traffic-calming measures. They say vehicles and other obstructions make it harder to view the monument and use the public space.

A site tied to Mallorca’s hymn

The monument stands on the site of the former Teatro Lírico. There, on 28 June 1926, the Orfeón de Sabadell premiered in Mallorca La Balanguera — Alcover’s poem set to music by Amadeu Vives and later made Mallorca’s hymn.

The ensemble includes La Serra, a sculpture by Esteve Monegal named after one of Alcover’s best-known poems, and a fountain designed by Mallorcan architect Guillem Forteza.

Call for a calmer public space

The groups say a monument to a leading figure in the island’s language and literature should sit in an accessible urban space that encourages people to stop, read, reflect and walk. Instead, they say, it has been left in an area dominated by traffic.

They want more than cosmetic work. Their proposal is to rethink the space and restore a public role matching its cultural and symbolic value. The organisations have offered to share ideas with Palma City Council and meet to discuss possible action.

Palma traffic and rubbish choke Joan Alcover monument

A site tied to Mallorca’s hymn

Call for a calmer public space