It was great to get inside the Basilica y Claustro de San Francisco to take this panoramic photograph. Here it was cool and quiet, there were no crowds to contend with, and it provided space to recover a bit and think while taking pictures around Palma on a very hot day.

Basílica y Claustro de San Francisco - Palma de Mallorca visitor guide showing a virtual tour of 'Basílica y Claustro de San Francisco' linked to an interactive map with local and travel information. 360° panoramas from Balearic Islands.

This is a 13C church built with huge sandstone walls with a delicately carved postal with a rose window at the centre. The church was remodeled in Gothic style after it was struck by lightning in the 17C. Inside is a Baroque high altar and the tomb of Ramón Llull.

Ramón Llull (Raimundo Lulio) lived at the end of the 13C, born of a wealthy family. He joined the church after a failed attempt to seduce a beautiful woman and traveled several times to Tunisia and other Muslim countries in North Africa. Ramon Llull was also a strong mystic, writing 'The Book of the Lover and His Beloved' describing some of his experiences.

Outside the front of the basilica is a statue of Junípero Serra, another Mallorcan missionary who lived in the monastery here. Father Junipero Serra spent much of his adult life working in California in the 18C, where he died at Mission Carmel aged 70.