June 25, 2021, 10:11 am | Read time: 6 minutes

For a few months now, we can finally travel to Mallorca again. While some prefer the party life at Playa de Palma, others vacation in the quieter southeast of the island, and still others appreciate the mountainous region in the northwest, where you can enjoy hiking and mountain biking. Some may have even been everywhere and know the island quite well by now. Nevertheless, there are certainly some unknown and partly curious facts that might surprise some people.

Mallorca – 8 Unknown Facts About the Island

1. The First Tourist Was an Austrian

What might not surprise anyone: By far, the most foreign tourists in Mallorca come from Germany. According to Statista, there were nearly 5 million in the pre-COVID year of 2019, followed by the British (around 3.7 million) and the Swiss (nearly 500,000). However, the first person to visit Mallorca as a tourist came from Austria: In 1867, Austrian Archduke Ludwig Salvator visited the island and settled there permanently three years later. He also opened Mallorca’s first guesthouse, where visitors could stay for free if they brought their own provisions.

2. S’Arenal Had No Houses 150 Years Ago

Where today one hotel and beach bar follows another, there was not a single house 150 years ago. In 1872, a man from the island’s interior built the first vacation cottage there, gradually creating a small settlement of fishermen’s huts and vacation homes, first mentioned in Spanish records in 1881. When a railway line from Palma to Llucmajor was built on Mallorca, more workers moved to the area, which was eventually named S’Arenal, “the Sandy.” By 1930, there were three bars but still no hotel or restaurant. The real tourism boom began in 1960 with the opening of Palma’s international airport. Dozens of hotels were built, 70 in S’Arenal alone. Today, the entire Playa de Palma vacation area has nearly 33,000 guest beds, more than any other place on the island.

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3. Mallorca’s Sand Is Stolen

The Playa de Palma, home to the Ballermänner and the island’s most visited beach, was once much narrower than it is today. It was only in the 1990s that it was widened through artificial infill to more than 500 meters. When a severe storm in the fall of 2001 eroded several large beaches on the east and northeast coasts, including in Can Picafort and Cala Millor, down to a narrow strip of sand, thousands of tons of sand were dredged from the deeper seabed off Mallorca and redeposited on the eroded beaches at the behest of the Spanish Ministry of the Environment. Because this largely destroyed the seabed ecosystem, the European Court of Justice fined the Balearic Islands millions. Of course, there are also naturally formed beaches on Mallorca, such as the beautiful natural beach Es Trenc in the south.

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4. Mallorca Has No Lakes and Rivers

Water almost everywhere you look, but not a single river or lake: Natural freshwater sources are nowhere to be found on Mallorca. What you do find frequently are dried-up riverbeds, called torrentes, which only carry water after heavy rainfall and can then turn into veritable torrents. Because they serve flood protection, they are meticulously maintained and kept in good condition. The two lakes, Cúber and Gorg Blau, in the Tramuntana Mountains are artificially dammed and serve as drinking water reservoirs.

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5. Mallorca Has Eleven Peaks Over 1,000 Meters

Mallorca is not only popular with beach and party vacationers but also with hikers and mountain bikers. After all, the island has a real mountain range in the northwest. The Serra de Tramuntana runs 90 kilometers along the coast, from Andratx to Pollença, and has eleven peaks over 1,000 meters high. The highest is Puig Major, which rises 1,445 meters into the sky almost in the middle of the mountain range. Incidentally, the Serra de Tramuntana is partly responsible for Mallorca’s good weather: The mountains keep most of the rain clouds away and protect the island from the cool north wind.

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6. Some Animals Exist Only on Mallorca

Especially the mountainous region of Mallorca is a protected retreat for many animals, particularly birds. Among the unknown facts that might surprise some is the fact that some species exist only on Mallorca. For example, the monk vulture, although it has now been reintroduced to the Spanish mainland and France, or the Mallorca midwife toad, which was thought to be extinct until the early 1980s. The tiny amphibian, which grows to a maximum of 38 millimeters, is notable for its protruding eyes.

7. The King of Mallorca Is Not Jürgen Drews

Even though some might be convinced otherwise, the King of Mallorca is not Jürgen Drews. Although Thomas Gottschalk declared the pop singer to be just that during a “Wetten, dass…?” show in 1999 on Mallorca, and Drews sang about himself with the same title a year later, the island is, of course, actually ruled by someone else: Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia, or simply Felipe IV, the King of Spain.

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8. Mallorca Has Two Export Hits

For a long time, shoes were Mallorca’s number one export hit, and this has been the case since the early 20th century. In 2013, shoes worth 100 million euros were exported, mainly to Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. The center of shoe production is in Inca, in the middle of Mallorca. In 1975, the most famous of all Mallorcan shoe brands was founded here: Camper (pronounced as written, not “Cämper,” as it is the Mallorcan word for farmer). Recently, however, shoe exports from Mallorca have significantly declined. Instead, another island product has seen a massive increase in exports: sea salt. The export of Balearic sea salt has increased by more than 500 percent since 2014.