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The industrial town of Manacor is situated approximately 50km, or 30 miles, east of the capital Palma, and the Son Sant Joan International Airport.

Being primarily a residential town, as you would expect, the range of accommodation available around Manacor is very limited, and as far as we are aware the town doesn't feature in any of the major tour operators brochures.

As a result, anyone considering a visit here must make provision to either collect a hire car from the airport, or make the journey into the town by one of the many taxis that will be waiting outside the arrivals hall.

For those visitors who do prefer to make the journey by car, in preference to a taxi ride, the main Ma-15 Carrer de Manacor does run almost all of the way from Palma, making it quite a straightforward journey.

On a good day an experienced driver should be able to complete the journey in around 30 - 40 minutes, however, as in the UK if you get stuck behind a lorry or tractor, this may increase the driving time substantially. As with the other destinations on this site, a detailed version of this route, complete with links to maps where appropriate, is available from the Route Map link on the left hand frame of this page.

Overall the municipal district of Manacor is home to the second largest community on the island after Palma, with figures taken taken from the latest Consell de Mallorca census, showing a resident population of around 28,000.

The municipality covers a wide area and has an extensive coastline, with lots of little coves and fishing villages dotted along it. Perhaps the best known coastal town is Porto Cristo, which literally translates as "The Port of Christ".

Legend has it that this was not the village’s original name, but after two oxen carrying an icon of Christ to Palma stopped here and refused to move any further, the icon stayed and the name of the village was changed. Although popular with visitors, the focus of this little community is still fishing rather than tourism and it has a huge natural harbour full of boats.

The town is also famous as the site of an attempted landing of Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, which was successfully repelled by the Nationalists.

Until the 19th Century the economy of Manacor was based on agriculture, chiefly cereals and grapes for wine and livestock, also the production of textiles and pottery was important. Even today, the landscape of the area is still characterised by agricultural production, with lots of grain fields, almond trees, fig trees, carob trees and vineyards. Melons, peppers and lettuces are also produced in significant numbers, however, there are more wild areas and the higher ground is covered in pine forests.

The history of human habitation in Manacor is long, with evidence of humans living here from as far back as 2000BC - the countryside contains many sites containing prehistoric archaeological structures such as standing stones. In terms of more recent history, objects found in the sea around Porto Cristo show that the area was once an important Roman port.

However, the population of the municipality remained relatively small until the latter half of 19th Century, a period that marked the beginning of the transformation of the town. Industrial activities dedicated to the processing of agricultural products increased and windmills and a liquor distillery appeared. The production of furniture became one of the main industries of Manacor, whilst the pottery and wine industries also grew considerably.

From the 1960s, tourism was added to the development of the economic activity of the municipality. However, Manacor is one of the more economically diversified municipalities on Majorca and by no means just relies on tourism: construction, manufacturing, commerce and agriculture are all important contributors to the local economy.

Manacor is also the centre of production of the famous Majorica pearl, a type of fake pearl made from solid glass balls that are coated with a special paste derived from ground fish scales. The process takes some time and each batch of pearls takes several weeks to make, despite this around 50 million are produced each year.

Famous sons of Manacor include the tennis player Rafael Nadal and his uncle, Barcelona footballer Miguel Angel Nadal, the so-called "Beast of Barcelona", who also won over sixty international caps for Spain.

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