At the foot of the Serra de Tramuntana, Pollença is a honey-stone town of artists' streets, cafés and a famous cypress-lined staircase climbing to a chapel. Its coastal sister, Port de Pollença, curves around a sheltered bay and is the gateway to the spectacular Cap de Formentor.
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Pollença's symbol is the Calvari: a stone staircase of 365 steps — one for each day of the year — lined with cypresses, climbing from the centre to an 18th-century chapel with bay views. Below, the Plaça Major, ringed with cafés and dominated by the church, is the town's heart, and every Sunday morning it fills with one of the island's best-known markets. On the edge of town lie the Pont Romà, a bridge of ancient origin, and the Puig de Maria, a hill crowned by a 14th-century monastery reached on foot in about an hour.
In summer, Pollença sounds like music: since 1962, the Pollença Festival has brought classical concerts to the Baroque cloister of the Convent de Sant Domingo, famed for its open-air acoustics. And then there's the coast. Port de Pollença has the Pine Walk (Passeig Voramar), a promenade among pines leaning over the water and old Mallorcan villas; from there the road heads to Cap de Formentor, with its lighthouse at the end of the peninsula and Formentor beach at the foot of the mountain.
The big event of the year is La Patrona, on 2 August: after some ten days of festivities, the town revives the Simulacre de Moros i Cristians, a battle re-enacting Pollença's 1550 defence against the corsair Dragut's raid. To get here, the TIB line 340 links Palma with Port de Pollença, a good base for the Sunday market, the Pine Walk and the trip out to Cap de Formentor. One tip: visit the old town on a Sunday morning, when the market and the café terraces are at their best.
