Valldemossa

Valldemossa sits at about four hundred metres in the Serra de Tramuntana, a village of golden stone houses with green shutters on stepped lanes. Its Carthusian charterhouse, dissolved in 1835, rented cells to visitors, and in the winter of 1838 to 1839 Frederic Chopin and George Sand stayed there with her children; Chopin was ill, the weather was appalling, the villagers were hostile to an unmarried couple with a consumptive, and Sand wrote a book, A Winter in Majorca, that was rude about the island and is still resented. Chopin composed some of the preludes there. Two cells claim to be theirs and both are museums. The village is also the birthplace of Catalina Thomas, Mallorca's patron saint.

The main sights

• The charterhouse cells - two rival museums claiming the Chopin rooms.
• The stone village - golden houses with green shutters on stepped lanes.
• The Chopin piano - an instrument shipped out to the monastery, on display.
• The Tramuntana setting - terraced slopes and mountains around the village.

When to go

March to June and September to November; the Chopin festival runs in August. Summer brings heavy coach traffic and the village is small. Winter is cold and wet, as the composer discovered.

Before you go

Two separate museums claim the same cells and both charge, which is confusing and mildly absurd. The village is small and crowded with coach groups through the middle of the day. Parking is outside and charged.

Nearby

Deia lies north along the Tramuntana; Palma is seventeen kilometres south.

Key facts