Giants - Overview
Giants first featured in Spain in the Middle Ages when they preceded processions
celebrating Corpus Christi. Originally representing biblical figures and religious
personages, they became increasingly secular as time passed.
The first giant to be mentioned by the chroniclers was the biblical King David who
appeared in Barcelona in 1442. It is also known that Aragon had giants before Castile
did from a document, dated 1588, that the Valencia Town Council sent to the “spies”
it had despatched to Castile to see “the real giants”.
There is no reference to them in Mallorca until 1630, when the Corpus Christi procession
in Sóller featured a giant and a giantess. Giants were also mentioned in Sineu in 1653
during the St Rock festival and in Palma in 1734, once again on Corpus Christi, when
there were four pairs of giants.
The first giant whose name is known was Puput in 1762 in Sant Llorenç. In 1897, the Archduke
Ludwig Salvator noted five Felanitx giants. Some of the giants of those times evolved into the
giants of today, as in Manacor and Llucmajor. Others died out to be revived during the last
century and yet others are newly created such as those in Binissalem and Campos.
See also Legendary Mallorca