Palma Cathedral

Palma Cathedral tickets: which one to buy

One ticket covers the cathedral, the chapter house museum and the terraces below the rose window; buy it online to skip a line that builds by mid-morning in season. The rooftop visit is a separate, more expensive guided climb onto the upper terraces of the nave, limited to small groups and sold months ahead for the summer; it is the best thing the cathedral offers and involves 215 steps in a spiral.

Guided tours of Palma's old town usually include cathedral entry and cost several times the ticket alone, which buys context for the Gaudi and Barcelo interventions that most visitors misread. Shore excursions from the cruise port bundle the cathedral with Valldemossa and are efficient if your time is fixed. Free entry applies on Sunday mornings for mass, when sightseeing is not permitted. The Almudaina palace opposite is a separate state ticket and a reasonable add-on, though the cathedral is the stronger visit by far.

Visiting Palma Cathedral: what to see

James I took Mallorca in 1229 and work began on the site of the main mosque the following year; the cathedral was not finished until the seventeenth century and its west front was rebuilt after earthquake damage in the nineteenth. It stands directly above the sea wall, so the building appears to rise out of the water, and its nave at 44 metres is among the tallest Gothic naves anywhere.

The rose window over the east end is nearly 14 metres across, the largest Gothic rose still in place, and twice a year, in early February and early November, the sun projects it onto the west wall directly beneath its twin, an effect known locally as the figure of eight. Antoni Gaudi worked here from 1903 to 1914, moving the choir stalls, opening up the sanctuary and hanging a wrought-iron canopy over the altar. In 2007 Miquel Barcelo covered the chapel of St Peter in ceramic: a wall of fish, bread and skulls in earth colours that divides opinion sharply.

Palma Cathedral opening hours and the best time to go

Open Monday to Saturday from mid-morning to mid-afternoon in winter and later in summer, closed to visitors on Sundays. The light show through the rose window happens around eight in the morning on the dates in February and November, and people queue in the dark for it. Ordinary mornings give the best colour in the nave, since the rose faces east. Terrace and rooftop visits stop in strong wind or rain. Palma in July and August is crowded and hot;

May, June and September are ideal. Dress code is applied at the door, shoulders and knees covered, and there are no wraps for hire. Allow an hour inside, two with the terraces. The sea-front promenade below gives the classic photograph, best at sunset when the sandstone turns gold, and the park with the reflecting pool opposite doubles the building in the water. The Almudaina palace opposite closes on Mondays, which is worth checking if you plan to see both in one morning.