Meeting of Giants at Sant Marçal Church. Autumn Fair 2008

The Giants of Palma de Mallorca
Tomeu, the Palma giant.

There have been records of giants in Palma since 1734 but giants modelled on everyday people did not make their appearance until 1904 when the Town Council commissioned the ceramicist La Roqueta de Palma to make a pair of giants. This introduced a style that has been immensely popular ever since. They were known as Tofol and Bet-Maria and took part in festivals until 1936, when they were lost in the upheaval of the commencement of the Civil War during a visit to Barcelona.

During the forties, there was another pair, Tofol and Francinaina. They stood immobile outside the Town Hall during important city event. Unfortunately, they too came to a sorry end when, overturned by a gust of wind, they were vandalised.

In the sixties, the Town Council commissioned another pair by the sculptors Joan Montserrat Palmer and Francesc Vives Bellaflor, made from cardboard and wood with a close resemblance to those at the beginning of the century. They were named Tofol and Francinaina. At the present time they stand at the entrance to the Palma Town.

Two others, two musicians or xeremiers, joined them in the eighties, followed by Tomeu and Margalida, made by Arts Plàstiques Guaita in Valencia, in 1999. Both weigh fifty kilos and are 4 metres tall. Visiting Catalonia, Spain and France, they are the most widely travelled of the Island giants.

Bandera española.

Margalida, the Palma de Mallorca giantess