Son Net
Its water system, with channelled springs, conduits, flour mills and even a paper mill, is counted among the municipality's most important technical legacies. The manor is now a hotel, and the Vila quarter grew on its land.
Puigpunyent / History
3,000 years in one valley
The history of
Puigpunyent.
Bronze Age towers, a pointed mountain named in a papal bull, a village founded for farm labourers, a count who became a ghost, and an economy built on olive oil. The story of Puigpunyent, Galilea and Son Serralta from the talaiots to today.
Prehistory
Talaiots
and a sword.
People have lived in this valley for thousands of years. The town hall's inventory lists more than fifty archaeological sites: boat-shaped navetes, caves used for burials, Roman and Islamic pottery, and above all the talaiots, the stone towers of Mallorca's Bronze and Iron Age Talaiotic culture.
The best known are at Son Serralta. Guillem Rosselló Bordoy excavated the talaiot of Serral de ses Abelles in 1950; almost seventy years later, in 2019, researchers Jaume Deyà and Pablo Galera identified a Bronze Age sword from the site, about 3,200 years old, now in the Museu de Mallorca. On the Son Puig estate stands Sa Casa des Gegant, the giant's house, about 13 m across and 3 m high, cleaned and surveyed in a conservation project in 2025. Other talaiots stand at Son Burguet and Ses Alzinetes.
The name
The pointed
mountain.
After King Jaume I took Mallorca from its Muslim rulers in 1229, the Llibre del Repartiment records lands here going to Berenguer de Palou, bishop of Barcelona. A papal bull of 1248 names the place Podio Pungente, the pointed hill, and the town hall notes an old form, Perpunchet. The sharp summit is usually taken to be Puig de Galatzó, 1,027 m, which closes the valley to the west.
The coat of arms makes the same point: a mountain topped by a tree on a silver field, with a green band at the foot. Whether the tree is a holm oak, for the charcoal burners who once worked these woods, or an olive, nobody is quite sure.
Timeline
From the conquest
to today.
- 1229Jaume I conquers Mallorca; valley lands are granted to the bishop of Barcelona, Berenguer de Palou.
- 1236The earliest records of Son Vich de Superna, given by the king to the knight Ludovico de Vic. Today it is a winery.
- 1248A papal bull names Podio Pungente.
- 1343The first documented olive press (tafona), at the farmstead of Pere Castany. A second, belonging to the rector, is recorded in 1402.
- 1396Galilea is born: Ramon Ribes and Pere Basset each grant land on the hill then called Sa Moleta to families of day labourers.
- 1403The Riera torrent floods.
- 1450The Forana revolt, the rising of Mallorca's country people, reaches Puigpunyent.
- 16th centuryBy tradition, Jordi Cortei of Son Cortei renames Sa Moleta "Galilea".
- 1597Son Puig appears in the town's inventory of estates; its vineyards are still worked today.
- 1627 to 1694Life of Ramon Burguès-Zaforteza, owner of Galatzó and Son Pont, remembered as the Comte Mal.
- 1672The date given for the manor of Son Net, now a five-star hotel.
- 18th centuryThe present parish church of the Assumption is built; its high altar first stood in Palma Cathedral. The Vila quarter grows from 1748 on Son Net land.
- 1784 to 1818Son Bru is laid out on plots of the old estate.
- 1806 to 1810Galilea's church is built and blessed; the town hall credits the sea captain Antoni Barceló with promoting it.
- 1836Estellencs, until then part of Puigpunyent, becomes a municipality of its own.
- 19th centuryOlive oil makes up around 80% of Mallorca's exports, and the valley's dry-stone terraces reach their peak. The Pou Nou well is dug; the Soler windmill on Sa Mola dates from 1881.
- 1917The last ice is taken from Galilea's snow house.
- 1929Guillem Forteza designs the village school.
- 1949The Tafona de Conques oil mill is protected. The olive oil story
- 1950First excavation of the Serral de ses Abelles talaiot.
- 2006The Galatzó estate becomes public land, owned by Calvià.
- 2011The Serra de Tramuntana is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage cultural landscape.
- 2019The Bronze Age sword is identified; the snow house is restored.
- 2025The town hall buys the Sa Mola estate above Galilea for public use, and Sa Casa des Gegant is conserved.
The estates
A valley of
possessions.
For centuries the valley was divided among large country estates, the Mallorcan possessions, worked by tenant farmers and day labourers.
Son Forteza and Sa Coma
With Son Net, the finest examples of the dry-stone terraces (marjades) built for olives across the hillsides.
Galatzó and Son Pont
Estates of the Comte Mal. Galatzó is now public land on the Calvià side; Son Pont is a finca hotel in the valley.
Son Vich de Superna
Granted after the conquest; the present houses were built from 1895 to 1900 in stone from the valley.
Son Cortei and Son Martí
Once called Alcabussa and Benifatxó; their owners gave the land on which Galilea was founded in 1396.
Sa Mola
The hill estate above Galilea, bought by the town in 2025, with a snow house, a lime kiln and a charcoal burner's hut. Walk it
See it for yourself
History
on foot.
- Village walkThe church, the old town hall, the Pou Nou, the 1929 school and Son Bru. Route
- GalileaThe 1810 church, the snow house, the windmills and Ca sa Mestra. Galilea guide
- Sa MolaA 12.5 km loop through the newly public estate. The walk
- TalaiotsBronze Age towers around Son Serralta. Son Serralta
- MuseumThe sword is on display at the Museu de Mallorca in Palma.
Sources: Ajuntament de Puigpunyent, history and heritage inventory · Última Hora on the coat of arms · Enciclopèdia Catalana on Estellencs · Mallorca.com guide · Wikipedia · Son Vich de Superna · Illes Balears tourism on Son Puig. Dates for the Comte Mal, Son Net, the olive trade and Galilea's church are sourced on our Comte Mal, olive oil and Galilea pages.