Spain · Still standing
Royal Palace of La Almudaina
Palacio Real de la Almudaina
The Royal Palace of La Almudaina in Palma de Mallorca is a medieval royal alcázar converted into a palace and still an official residence of the Spanish royal family. The present appearance dates largely to 14th‑century remodelling of an earlier Muslim fortress, with later additions to the upper floor. It stands beside Palma Cathedral overlooking a raised terrace planted with palms.
Its prime
1343
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1343
What Royal Palace of La Almudaina looked like in its prime.
A compact rectangular stone palace of warm beige Mallorcan limestone, dominated by two square crenellated towers flanking a tall central keep; the main façade rises from a raised curtain wall and terrace planted with palm trees. The front presents a two‑tiered loggia: three large semicircular arches at ground level, a recessed arcade of narrow rounded arches on the floor above, and a row of arched windows beneath a tiled roofline. The masonry is regular ashlar with medieval battlements and a compact, fortress‑like silhouette.
Its story
The story of Royal Palace of La Almudaina.
The Zuda: an Arab Alcázar on Roman Foundations
The palace stands on a site of Roman origin, and at the time of the Christian conquest of Majorca it was an Arab alcázar known as the Zuda. It was this Muslim fortress, rather than a fresh foundation, that the island's new rulers took over and remade — the transformation carried on through the reigns of James II of Majorca, Sancho and James III.
James II and the Court of the Kingdom of Majorca, 1298–1349
In 1298 James II launched a programme to reshape the appearance of Palma, which included rebuilding the alcázar into a royal palace — an idea conceived before 1300, with the main works carried out between 1309 and 1314. James and his wife Esclaramunda of Foix modelled it on the palace of the Kings of Majorca at Perpignan; the works included the Great Hall, a sculpture of the Archangel Gabriel and the founding of St Anne's Chapel. The structure that survives today is essentially this fourteenth-century palace, with its separate palaces of the King and the Queen, the chapel and the baths.
La Almudaina was the seat of the prosperous fourteenth-century Majorcan kingdom under James II and his successors Sancho and James III, until the kingdom passed to the Crown of Aragon under Peter IV in 1349. The monarchs of Majorca, of Aragon and of Spain held court here in succession.
Charles V's Upper Floor and the Long Royal Absence
In the first half of the sixteenth century an upper floor was added on the orders of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor — who proved to be the last monarch to visit the palace until Queen Isabella II lodged here with her husband and children from 12 to 16 September 1860. In the interval the building served the machinery of government rather than the court: Philip II assigned the Tinell hall to the Real Audiencia and installed the Captaincy General of the Islands in the rest of the palace.
Declared a monument of cultural interest in 1931 and administered by Patrimonio Nacional, La Almudaina is today an official summer residence of the King of Spain. Its upper floor, furnished with objects from other Royal Sites of the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, is used for official acts, while the ground floor recreates the medieval palace with works spanning the fifteenth to twentieth centuries — among them the only painting by Jacob Seisenegger kept in Spain, a portrait of Charles V. The royal family in practice resides at the Marivent Palace, as it does at La Zarzuela in Madrid.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1343.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Royal Palace of La Almudaina, including 5 interiors: great hall (tinell), king's palace, upper ceremonial chamber, queen's apartments and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Royal Palace of La Almudaina with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1343, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Castle Siege
Play Castle Siege at Royal Palace of La Almudaina.
A strategy game played on Royal Palace of La Almudaina’s real ground plan: the same surveyed walls shown in the archive below. Post your finite garrison on the battlements between assaults, then hold out as rams, siege towers, trebuchets and sappers arrive in ever-worse waves.
Sign in free to see the garrison muster. One castle costs 150 Clan Coins and is yours forever.
Sign in to take command →Nearby
