Binissalem

The oldest traces of human presence in Binissalem go back to the Talayotic period, and remains from both Roman and Islamic times have also been identified. The Islamic era left a particular mark: the old settlement of Robines was the local centre of power, and the wells and irrigation channels of that period are still echoed in local place names.

When Catalan forces conquered Mallorca, the territory fell to the Viscount of Bearn, and the area comprised several farmsteads — alqueries — including Robines, Beni Salam and Beni Rasjell. In 1264 the Viscountess Garsenda de Bearn transferred it to the convent of Jonqueres. Jews who had assisted Jaume I in the conquest were granted several alqueries, but violent Christian opposition from Robines prevented them from establishing a settled community there. That antisemitism persisted as a recurring feature of Binissalem's social history for centuries: descendants of Jewish converts faced exclusion well into the modern era.

At the time of the Catalan conquest there was no significant urban centre in the area, only scattered farmsteads and hamlets. The Christian settlers who arrived built a church — dedicated in 1248 to Santa Maria de Robines — over an earlier mosque, with Robines serving as both the civil and religious heart of the territory. In 1300, under Jaume II of Mallorca's policy of promoting urban centres, the settlement was granted the status of a vila. Over the following decades Binissalem gradually displaced Robines as the main centre of power, and by 1369 the parish itself had moved there.

The Catalan conquest also restructured the economy around large feudal landholdings worked by slaves, focused on the classic Mallorcan triad of olives, vines and cereals, alongside sheep, pigs and horses. Vineyards are documented from 1339, and Binissalem's wine quickly gained a reputation as the finest on the island. Later, spirits production developed alongside it, largely for export. The town's active role in the major events of 15th-to-17th-century Mallorca grew out of a substantial and restless class of artisans — weavers above all — who are documented from an early period.

A cluster of late-18th- and early-19th-century buildings earned Binissalem recognition as a protected historic-artistic ensemble in 1983. They reflect a period of economic prosperity: notable examples include Can Marc, Can Beltran, Can Garover, Can Gelabert — which contains rooms decorated with Pompeian-style frescoes — and Can Tiró de les Bolles, whose façade is in the Mannerist style. Above them all, in height and presence, stands the parish church of Nostra Senyora de Robines, built from local stone.