A black horse in flames
The best-known version: after his death the count's soul cannot rest, and he is seen riding the Galatzó estate on a black horse wreathed in fire, with flames pouring from his mouth and eyes.
Puigpunyent / The Comte Mal
The legend of Galatzó
The Comte Mal
still rides.
Mallorca's most famous ghost is a real 17th-century nobleman, condemned in folk memory to ride a burning horse around the mountain above Puigpunyent for ever.
The man
A real count,
a real feud.
Legend and history have been tangled together here for three hundred years.
The Comte Mal, the "evil count", was Ramon Burguès-Zaforteza (1627 to 1694), second Count of Santa Maria de Formiguera. He was one of the great landowners of 17th-century Mallorca, and his estates included Galatzó, on the mountain that rises over Puigpunyent, Calvià and Estellencs, and Son Pont in the Puigpunyent valley, today a finca hotel where you can sleep in the count's old estate.
He earned his name in a long and violent fight to hold on to feudal rights over the people of Santa Margalida. He lost that dispute and was banished from the town, yet still rose to an important position on the island. The popular imagination never forgave him.
Mallorcans already knew the Catalan tale of Comte Arnau, a nobleman damned for his cruelty and condemned to ride an undead horse while flames consumed him. That story, carried in a popular song since the 16th century, was simply transferred onto the hated count of Galatzó. Nineteenth-century writers and village storytellers did the rest, and the Comte Mal became one of the best-known myths in Mallorcan culture.
The tellings
Three ways
the story is told.
The sulphur horse
In another telling the horse is green and stinks of sulphur. The count rides it alone across his old lands on cold November nights, when the wind rises and dogs howl in the distance. Some say he tortured enemies and servants to death on the estate.
The heart that still beats
A version collected by students of the University of the Balearic Islands tells of a girl the count loved who loved another. He carried her off to his estate near Galatzó, where she died. He tore out his own heart and buried it in a stone, and they say that if you lay your hand on that stone you can still feel it beating.
The mountain
Galatzó,
the magic mountain.
Puig de Galatzó stands 1,027 m high where Puigpunyent, Calvià and Estellencs meet, and local tradition says the Tramuntana range begins here. It is known on the island as the magic mountain, and the count is not its only story.
Muslims are said to have hidden on its slopes after the Christian conquest. On some winter days, people say, hundreds of snakes gather on its north face to lie in the sun and soak up the mountain's energy. And there is the claim, repeated in guides to La Reserva, that Galatzó is the most magnetic mountain in Europe.
Where to feel the legend
- Finca Pública GalatzóThe count's old estate, now public land on the Calvià side, with an oil mill, chapel, botanical garden and marked routes. Visitor information
- La ReservaThe nature park at the foot of the mountain above Puigpunyent, Guides to the park say the count owned this land in the 17th century and that his ghost lives here still.
- The summitClimb Galatzó from Puigpunyent and look down on the whole of the count's world. Route details
Every November
The Comte Mal
night walk.
A guided after-dark walk at the foot of Galatzó, telling the legend where it happened. Small groups, torches and warm layers. Dates are set each autumn; register your interest and we will message you first.
Register on WhatsApp
Or message +34 610 392 305. Guides, hotels and restaurants who want to take part: get in touch too.
Read more
Sources
& further reading.
- Comte Arnau and the Comte MalWikipedia · folklore
- Mallorca stories from dark to bloody (DE)Mallorca Magazin
- La Reserva and the Earl of MalMás Mallorca
- A folk-tale itinerary for Puigpunyent (CA)Universitat de les Illes Balears
- Visit the Finca Pública GalatzóIlles Balears tourism
- Puig de Galatzó, where the Tramuntana begins (DE)Mallorca Magazin