Qualla: Bellver Castle https://qualla.com/bellver-castle en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/bellver-castle-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Bellver Castle https://qualla.com/bellver-castle Bellver Castle: Introduction https://qualla.com/bellver-castle/ Photo credit Elgaard, CC BY-SA 4.0. Most medieval castles are angular things -- squares, rectangles, the occasional irregular polygon dictated by the terrain. Bellver Castle is a circle. Built between 1300 and 1311 on a forested hill three kilometers west of Palma de Mallorca, it is one of the few circular castles in all of Europe, its round walls and cylindrical towers giving it a form that looks more like a crown placed on the hilltop than a conventional fortress. The name comes from the Catalan for "beautiful view," and from its ramparts the entire bay of Palma unfolds below.

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Image: Elgaard | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/bellver-castle-wp/sp1c-bellver-castle-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Bellver Castle: A Palace in the Round https://qualla.com/bellver-castle/ Photo credit Antoni I. Alomar, CC BY-SA 3.0. King James II of Majorca commissioned the castle as a royal residence, and the architect Pere Salva -- who also worked on the Royal Palace of La Almudaina in Palma -- designed a structure that married palace comfort with military function. The plan is elegant in its geometry: a c...

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Image: Antoni I. Alomar | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/bellver-castle-wp/sp1c-bellver-castle-a-palace-in-the-round.mp3 0:06 2 full Bellver Castle: A Prison of Illustrious Inmates https://qualla.com/bellver-castle/ Photo credit Rafael Ortega Díaz, Public domain. Bellver's history as a prison began almost as soon as it was built. After King James III of Mallorca died at the Battle of Llucmajor in 1349, his queen, Violante of Vilaragut, and her stepchildren were confined within its circular walls. The pattern held for centuries. During the...

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Image: Rafael Ortega Díaz | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/bellver-castle-wp/sp1c-bellver-castle-a-prison-of-illustrious-inmates.mp3 0:06 3 full Bellver Castle: Tested but Rarely Taken https://qualla.com/bellver-castle/ Photo credit Olaf Tausch, CC BY-SA 3.0. As a fortification, Bellver proved remarkably resilient. It withstood two sieges during the Middle Ages: the first in 1343, when Peter IV of Aragon campaigned to absorb the Majorcan kingdom back into the Crown of Aragon, and the second in 1391, during a violent anti-Semitic peasa...

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Image: Olaf Tausch | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/bellver-castle-wp/sp1c-bellver-castle-tested-but-rarely-taken.mp3 0:06 4 full Bellver Castle: The Circle Endures https://qualla.com/bellver-castle/ Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Antoni I. Alomar~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. In 1931, the Spanish Second Republic transferred Bellver Castle to the city of Palma, along with the pine forest that surrounds it. It became a museum the following year and was restored again in 1976 to house the city's history collection. Today the circular courtyard hosts conc...

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Antoni I. Alomar~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/p/1/c/bellver-castle-wp/sp1c-bellver-castle-the-circle-endures.mp3 0:06 5 full