Alcudia History
The town of Alcudia and the unspoilt areas to its north are really the places to enjoy sights (as opposed to the port). The walled town and the church of Sant Jaume and the Roman ruins of the Ciudad Romana (Roman town) lend Alcudia its strong historical heritage.
The Roman town is a significant archaeological site, dating from the late second century BC, the exact date being put at 123BC when Pollentia (its name) was founded by Quinto Cecilio Metelo (after whom a rather uncharming street has been named). Pollentia was subsequently subject to development and destruction in fairly equal measure, and from the third century there was a lengthy period of “decadencia”, which means as it sounds in English but also translates as decline, though one suspects there was fair degree of decadence too. Nowadays it is possible to determine the general shape of the town and its street layout as well as the forum and temples.
The Roman theatre followed some while after the founding of Pollentia, at the end of the first century AD to be precise (or rather to be fairly imprecise).
It exhibits three elements that demonstrate it was indeed a Roman theatre and not a Greek one, as was initially thought when it was excavated in the early 1950s; these elements being - the “cavea” (the terraced seating) in a semicircular form, the “orchestra” and the wooden “scaena” (stage), raised slightly higher than the orchestra in front of it.
There is also another excavation dating from Roman times, Portella. This was a residential area which appears to have been developed in the first century AD and a wall added around the third century.
No archaeological site worth its name can do without its own museum, and so the Museo Monográfico de Pollentia was established in 1987 in what was an old hospital.
Alcudia Town
Away from the town itself heading north there are a number of possibilities for walks or for cycle trips into the mountainous area, to Coll Baix and to the Hermitage of La Victoria. This whole area is in stark contrast to the development of Puerto Alcudia:
peaceful, scenic and indicative of the “unseen Mallorca”.
With a seven mile long beach to call its own, Alcudia was always destined to be vacation central. Add to that its warm waters, great shopping and family-friendly, traffic-calmed promenade, and you’re looking at a little slice of Balearic paradise.
And so close to the majestic Majorcan countryside, too. The island’s rocky heart reaches its pinnacle at the soaring Tramuntana mountain range, just out of town – and this is a real A hiker’s paradise.
Follow the foothills around the lush north of the island, and you’ll discover medieval villages where, in sub-dappled squares, local craftspeople carry on their daily lives much as they have for centuries.
Seek out their fine ceramics or blown glass for good value souvenirs – or perhaps a bottle of two of the island’s excellent wines. They’ve been harvesting grapes here since the Romans arrived, plenty of time to get it right. But, as ever, family holidays to Majorca always return to the beach. And, in Alcudia, you’ll be spoiled for choice, wherever your wanderings take you.
During the day the narrow streets of the quaint medieval town of Alcudia are filled with many day-trippers who marvel at the heritage listed town with Roman and Moorish influences. The visitor get the impression of moving in a single stone open-air museum within the closed architecture of Alcudia.
Particularly impressive are the massive fortifications some of the 13th centuries and are still passable. Another attraction outside the city is the Roman excavations of the city Pollentia, which was founded in 70 BC.
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