Ca n'Oleo

Ca n'Oleo is a fifteenth-century manor house in central Palma, near the cathedral, Almudaina Palace, and the former Santo Domingo convent. Its smooth sandstone façade gives little away about the Gothic courtyard waiting inside.

A large staircase rises beside a stone balustrade with ten panels, each carrying a circular rosette in pointed Gothic style. Sandstone and rammed earth form the building, while a vestibule column bears a bell-wheel capital and a Spanish inscription. Pere Vivot i Pacs bought and rebuilt the house in 1443, after the Thomàs family held it and outfitted privateer ships. The Oms family owned it from 1685, followed by the Oleo family, originally from Menorca, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The Societat Arqueològica Lul·liana later used the building, and the Ministry of Education acquired it in 1976. Since 2003, the University of the Balearic Islands has used these historic rooms as its headquarters. One detail remains especially memorable: the inscription reads, “Sirven sus voces a Dios y mi lengua para vos.”