Sant Jordi and the plain covered with mills
Everybody knows it, the Pla de Sant Jordi. Because when you land at Son Sant Joan Airport in Palma de Mallorca, you can’t avoid seeing the plain covered with mills on the outskirts of the Balearic capital. The numerous watermills are absolutely characteristic of the wetland area but the ravages of time have chipped away unsparingly at these “molinos“. At least some have been saved from ruin in recent years, having been all spruced up again and the two-colour windmills restored.
Real Estate Mallorca – Sant Jordi
The mills versus the mosquitoes
The watermills once performed a really important function in the humid plain beside Palma Airport. They helped to drain this hinterland of Playa de Palma so it could be utilised for agriculture. Moreover, Majorca had indigenous malaria mosquitoes in the past and they just loved the humid area around Sant Jordi – but draining the flats in the 19th century succeeded in getting rid of these dangerous disease carriers.
From the supermarket to the music festival
Sant Jordi itself – or San Jorge in Spanish – is a district of Palma. It’s located about 15 kilometres east of the historic centre of the Majorcan capital. Here, property owners can be close to rural life while not being far from the city and its extensive shopping facilities and cultural scene. Besides, you can find everything you need for normal everyday life in Sant Jordi itself – supermarket, bakery, bank, optician, stationery shop, hairdresser…plus there’s a church. Parròquia de Sant Jordi is one of the churches in Palma where you can listen to concerts of music by international composers as part of the Palma Early Music Festival (Festival de Música Antigua de Palma) in autumn.
Five minutes from the playa
What makes Sant Jordi great is its proximity to the beach – it’s only five minutes from Playa de Palma. And with the airport around the corner, the Ma-15 motorway close by and its connection to the city bus system, Sant Jordi is a really interesting location for a Majorcan finca, town house or apartment. If you’re a golfer, the Golf Park Mallorca Puntiró and the private Son Gual golf club give you two options for playing in the vicinity.
Escargot fever in Sant Jordi
If you can’t understand the appetite for snails, you may get inspiration at the Fira del Caragol, held in Sant Jordi every year in May. This is a fair dedicated solely to these delicacies. By the way, there are even snail farms in Majorca that specialise in breeding the molluscs and they produce tons of different types from the escargot family; snails are extremely popular as a dish in Majorca.
When Sant Marc is celebrated every 25th April, Majorca gets officially all excited and there’s no more holding back when it comes to snail consumption. Because if you tuck into them on that day – according to popular belief – you’ll enjoy the very best of health all year long, and illnesses such as rheumatism won’t stand a chance…