Portixol and El Molinar: Palma’s seafront village

Where it is and how it began

Portixol and El Molinar run along the seafront east of the cathedral, starting about 2 km from the old town. Both are part of Palma. Portixol is the small harbour at the mouth of a torrent; El Molinar, often called Es Molinar locally, is the larger barri that runs east from it as far as the Torrent Gros.

The name comes from the flour windmills that once lined this shore, and two still stand near Can Pere Antoni beach. The barri grew up in the 19th century around the mills, the first summer houses and the fishermen’s harbour. Fishing families, tannery hands and workers from the gas and electricity plants lived here, and many long-standing residents still feel that working-class identity strongly. In the 1970s about a dozen families still made their living from fishing; by 2024 only one fishing boat was left in the harbour.

Promenade, harbours and town beaches

The heart of the place is the raised promenade along the whole shore, which also protects the front row of houses from waves in a storm. It continues east towards Can Pastilla, and a cycle path leads west along the seafront to the cathedral.

• Portixol harbour: a marina, home to the Club Nàutic Portitxol, founded in 1928, with the sandy cove of Es Portitxolet beside it.
• Caló d’en Rigo: El Molinar’s own small harbour, base of the Club Marítim Molinar de Llevant, founded in 1917 and often called the oldest maritime club on the island. Its quay and clubhouse reopened after renovation in 2025.
• Can Pere Antoni: a longer sandy beach at the western end, the closest beach to the city centre and very busy in summer.
• El Molinar’s shore: rock and small patches of sand between breakwaters, used mostly by locals.

For a long sandy beach, Can Pastilla and Playa de Palma are about 10 minutes east by car.

Everyday life

On weekdays the promenade belongs mostly to older residents out for a walk. On sunny weekends, including in winter, it fills up and the harbour terraces are packed. The barri has a public health unit on Carrer Guayaquil, a state primary school, a nursery, small supermarkets, football pitches and its parish church, El Remei, opened in 1928. The small municipal Mercat de Llevant is about five minutes’ walk from Can Pere Antoni beach. Larger supermarkets and the state secondary schools are a few minutes inland, across the motorway, and Son Llàtzer is the area’s public hospital.

Houses and flats

The front row along the promenade is a line of low houses. Some are restored fishermen’s and workers’ homes; many others have been rebuilt as modern houses with large glass fronts. Between the sea and Carrer de Llucmajor, the old road through the barri, new buildings are limited to a ground floor plus one storey, a rule residents won in the 1980s. The few taller buildings there are older.

Across Carrer de Llucmajor the streets are plainer, with several tower blocks and many flats from the 1960s and 1970s. Larger sea-view apartment buildings stand by Portixol harbour. Only one building on the front row is listed, so if a view matters, check what the neighbours could build.

Getting into town

From Portixol harbour the cathedral is about 2.2 km along the seafront: roughly 30 minutes on foot or 15 by bike. From the middle of El Molinar allow about 45 minutes on foot. By car the old town is 10 to 15 minutes away and the airport about 15, along the Ma-19 motorway. City buses run along Carrer de Llucmajor, and the bus interchange by the Palau de Congressos has connections to the centre.

The downsides

• Parking: streets are narrow and drivers circle for a space at weekends and in summer. In 2025 the Port Authority presented early plans to redesign the Portixol seafront with an underground car park, with no budget or timetable at that stage.
• Crowds: the promenade and beaches are busy on sunny weekends and in summer.
• Change: old houses are being demolished and rebuilt, so there is building work on many streets. Long-standing residents and small-boat owners complain that the area is becoming a place for the wealthy, and the island’s press counts it among the clearest cases of gentrification in Mallorca.
• Moorings: the low-cost public berths at Portixol have had a long waiting list since 2016.

For buyers who want the sea at the door and the old town within walking distance, few places in Palma compare. Visit on a weekday and on a sunny Sunday before you decide. Our guide to surveys and checks covers what to look at in an older house.

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Portixol & El Molinar · Palma