8 Best Sights in Ibiza and the Balearic Islands, Spain

Originally built as a palace in 1309, the monastery was founded in 1399, but after the monks were expelled in 1835 it acquired a new lease on life by offering apartments to travelers. The most famous lodgers were Frédéric Chopin and his lover, the Baroness Amandine Dupin, the French novelist better known by her pseudonym, George Sand. The two spent three difficult months here in the cold, damp winter of 1838–39.

In the church, note the frescoes above the nave—Goya's brother-in-law was the monk who painted them. The pharmacy, made by the monks in 1723, is almost entirely preserved. A long corridor leads to the apartments, furnished in period style, occupied by Chopin and Sand (the piano is original). Nearby, another set of flats houses the local museum, with mementos of Archduke Luis Salvador and a collection of old printing blocks. From here, you return to the ornately furnished King Sancho's palace, a group of rooms initially built by King Jaume II for his son. The tourist office sells tickets for the monastery's attractions in Valldemossa's central plaza.

Built between 1901 and 1903 by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, originator of Barcelona's Palau de la Música Catalana, this former hotel has an alabaster facade sculpted like a wedding cake, with floral motifs, angelic heads, and coats of arms. The original interiors are gone, however. The building is owned and used by the Fundació La Caixa, a cultural and social organization funded by the region's largest bank. Don't miss the permanent exhibit of paintings by the Catalan impressionist Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa.

This gem of Palma's early Moderniste architecture, designed in the 1890s by Nicolau Lliteras, is on the corner of Carrer de Jaume II.

Designed by Lluís Forteza Rei in 1909, this Art Nouveau delight has twisted wrought-iron railings and surfaces inlaid with bits of polychrome tile, which are signature touches of Antoni Gaudí and his contemporaries. A wonderful carved stone face in a painful grimace, flanked by dragons, ironically frames the stained-glass windows of a third-floor dental clinic. There's a chocolate shop on the ground floor.

Carrer del Seminari is lined with some of the city's most impressive historic buildings on the west side. Among them is the 17th-century convent of Sant Agustí, which regularly hosts Ciutadella's summer classical music festival (contact  [email protected] for details) in its lovely cloister. The Diocesan Museum's collection of paintings, archaeological finds, and liturgical objects is also impressive. The room housing the historical library and archives is imposing.

On the seafront west of the Plaça de la Reina, the 15th-century Llotja connects via an interior courtyard to the Consolat de Mar (Maritime Consulate). Its decorative turrets, pointed battlements, fluted pillars, and Gothic stained-glass windows—part fortress, part church—attest to the wealth Mallorca achieved in its heyday as a Mediterranean trading power. The interior (the Merchants' Chamber) often hosts free art exhibitions.

Opera companies from Italy en route to Spain made the Teatre Principal in Mahón their first port of call; if the Maonesos gave a production a poor reception, it was cut from the repertoire. It was built in 1829, which makes it Spain's oldest opera house. It has five tiers of boxes, plush red seats, and gilded woodwork: La Scala in miniature. Lovingly restored, it hosts regular concerts and international opera weeks that usually fall in December and May or June.

Take time to appreciate the neoclassical symmetry of this theater, Palma's chief venue for classical music. The opera season here usually runs through June.