DK Travel : Mallorca : Museums & Galleries

Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró, Palma

Miró’s Mallorcan roots go deep – both his mother and his wife were Mallorcan-born, and the great artist spent the last years of his life on the island. So it is entirely fitting that the place he worked in that final period should have been turned into a museum devoted to him.
Museu de Lluc

An interesting hotchpotch of prehistoric artifacts, Roman finds, ceramics (including some lovely majolica), religious pieces, and an exhaustive array of works by 20th-century Valdemossan artist Josep Coll Bardolet, who liked mountain scenery.
Museu de Mallorca, Palma

The palace that houses this terrific museum dates from 1634. The collections present a full and well-documented range of Mallorcan artifacts, from the prehistoric up to fine examples of Modernista furniture. The Talayot figures – small bronze warriors – and recreations of Neolithic dwellings are other highlights.

Panel, Museu de Mallorca
Museu Diocesà, Palma

Housed in the former Episcopal Palace, this treasure trove contains archaeological artifacts, ceramics, coins, books and paintings spanning the 13th to 16th centuries. Highlights include the jasper sarcophagus of Jaume II, an Arab tombstone and a painting of St George and the Dragon with a background impression of what 15th-century Palma might have looked like.
Museu d’Art Espanyol Contemporani, Palma

One of the finer legacies left by Mallorcan Joan March, who became the world’s third-richest man during the Franco era, in what many say was a dubious rags-to-riches rise. The renovated museum aims to spotlight the contributions of Spanish artists to the global art scene, so you’ll find works by Picasso, Miró, Dalí and Gris, and also Mallorca’s greatest modern painter, Miquel Barceló (see Museu d’Art Espanyol Contemporani, Fundació March).
Museu Etnològic, Muro

Fascinating glimpses into Mallorca’s past include a recreated traditional kitchen pharmacy. There is a fine collection of siurells (Mallorcan clay whistles) featuring men on horseback. The Felanitx pottery bears the characteristic floral decoration.
Museu Gordiola

A fine exhibition of how Mallorcan glass is made and a museum dedicated to the history of glassmaking, from ancient Mesopotamia to the very latest high-style creations of the Murano works in Italy or Steuben in the US (see Gordiola Glassworks).
Museu Monogràfic, Alcúdia

This small but beautifully designed museum houses all the finds from ancient Roman Pollentia, such as cult figures, weights and measures, surgical instruments, needles, games, jewellery and gladiatorial gear.
Museu Municipal de Pollença

In a former Dominican convent, the museum includes prehistoric sculptures shaped like bulls and an exquisite Tibetan sand painting given by the Dalai Lama in 1990.
Museu Municipal de Valldemossa

The range of objects on display is vast and eclectic, such as the history of printing in Mallorca, the work of an Austrian archduke, paintings inspired by the mountains of the Tramuntana, and important works by modern masters.