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As summer loosens its grip, two towns open the autumn festa season — one with a saint on a golden chariot, the other with a battle on the beach.
The first days of September are when Mallorca turns from beach to plaça. The crowds thin, the light softens, and two towns on opposite sides of the island open the autumn festa season with rituals that are centuries old — and still, unmistakably, alive.
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In Santa Margalida, on the first Sunday of September, the town honours Santa Catalina Thomàs — the only saint the Balearic Islands have ever produced. The night before and the day itself belong to La Beata: a procession led by a golden Carro Triomfal, a triumphal chariot, followed by floats that re-enact scenes from the saint's life while the crowd presses in from every street.
“One town crowns a saint on a chariot; the other storms a beach. Both have been doing it for longer than anyone can remember.”
Across the island in Santa Ponça, the Festes del Rei En Jaume mark the spot where King James I of Aragon came ashore in 1229 to begin the Christian conquest of the island. The week builds to Es Desembarc — a full Moors and Christians re-enactment, with the king's troops landing at the Creu del Desembarc and a mock battle fought out on the sand.
Go to either for the spectacle; go to both, on the same weekend, to see how differently one island can tell its own story — devotion on one coast, conquest on the other, and a whole autumn of festes just beginning.
