Fornalutx
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Fornalutx () is a mountainous
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...
and
village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...
on Majorca (''Mallorca''), one of the
Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...
, in
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
. The nearest
town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...
is
Sóller Sóller () is a town and municipality near the north west coast of the Balearic Island of Mallorca, Spain, 3 km inland from Port de Sóller, in a large, bowl-shaped valley that also includes the village of Fornalutx and the hamlets of Biniar ...
, which can be reached by foot via a series of footpaths and pathways and the hamlet of Binibassi. Surrounding mountains include the Alfabia Mountains and the Els Cornadors. Mallorcan Catalan (''mallorquí'') is the most popular local language—however, all residents speak
Castilian Spanish In English, Castilian Spanish can mean the variety of Peninsular Spanish spoken in northern and central Spain, the standard form of Spanish, or Spanish from Spain in general. In Spanish, the term (Castilian) can either refer to the Spanish lang ...
as well. Fornalutx covers an area of 19.5 km² and as of 2008 had 469 inhabitants.


The village

The centre of Fornalutx is the ''Plaça d'Espanya'', surrounded by cafés and a general store. Overlooking the square (on a higher level reached by steps) is the church, which has a large clock on its façade. Just down the street is the ''Panaderia de Fornalutx'' (the local bakery), and on the road leading out of the town several restaurants. The old tower at the east side of the village is also used as the ''ajuntament'' ( town hall), and just a few houses away from it is the public washing house. The latter has an open loggia at its front with a long bath of water (channelled here in open stone culverts alongside the roads coming down from the hills) and a rail above it where locals leave their clothes to be washed or to wash themselves. The architecture of the village is of stone and red roof tiles, with most buildings' windows also having green painted wooden shutters. The stone façades on the majority of these houses have been exposed in recent years by removing the original render to give the buildings a more rustic appearance than was originally the case. Built on different levels, many of the higher streets are pedestrianised and cobbled, with grassy paths leading off into the orchards and farms to the north. The dominant large plants in the area are orange trees, lemon trees and cacti. Thousands of
house sparrow The house sparrow (''Passer domesticus'') is a bird of the Old World sparrow, sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. It is a small bird that has a typical length of and a mass of . Females and young birds are coloured pale ...
s flit around the area and
sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticate ...
graze in the surrounding orchards. Higher up, there are stunning olive groves with some trees more than a thousand years old. Fornalutx has received prizes and recognition for tourism and conservation. In 1983 it was awarded the Mallorcan Tourism Board Silver Plaque for the defence and maintenance of the village. The same year the General Secretary for Tourism gave it the Second National Price for Towns embellished and maintained in Spain. In 1985 it received the Premi Alzina from the Grup Balear d'Ornitologia i Defensa de la Naturalesa. The village is well supplied with public parking, there being three generous municipal car parks. Large vehicles are discouraged from passing through the centre by a weight limit and the need to negotiate a narrow bottleneck near the square. To help with this a turning place for lorries and coaches has been provided to the north. There are a number of restaurants, bars, banks and shops. A half hour a day free wireless internet access is provided by the town council in the main square.


References


External links


Map of Fornalutx

Fornalutx tourist information and guide
{{authority control Municipalities in Mallorca Populated places in Mallorca