Inhabited since 4,000 BC, Vall de Sóller has given refuge to pre-Talayotic, Talayotic, Roman, Muslim and Christian settlers: remains of almost all the cultures that have passed through Sóller are preserved. The Muslims called this land Sûlyâr ("golden valley" in Arabic) and began to inhabit what we know today as the urban nucleus of the village, channeled the water from the torrents to the orchards and built the first terraces to take advantage of better the space in the foothills of the mountains: a way of population that they imported from their places of origin, in the North of Africa.
Due to the fear of the Berber attacks, the first defensive buildings were erected, but they were not able to prevent the attack of 1561 of 1,700 Turkish corsairs under the orders Uluch Ali. The courageous response of the sollerenses that expels the pirates is remembered since 1855 with the Moors and Christians simulation of "Es Firó".
After this attack, Sóller continued to fortify the city and began the construction of the Picada Tower, thanks in part to the benefits of olive cultivation and oil trade.
In 1860, a serious epidemic in the orange trees caused a serious economic crisis and forced many sollerics to emigrate to France and the Antilles: these, determined to return home, worked very hard to save enough money to do so. With the return of the emigrated Sollerenses, now converted into petty bourgeois, the city underwent an important social and cultural transformation: the European modernism landed in Sóller and impregnated, above all, the architectural style in which the houses of these new industrialists were built and merchants.
This particular social and cultural revolution was the one that prompted the construction of the Tren de Sóller at the beginning of the 20th century.
Sóller commemorates the victory of the Sollericss over the Saracens on May 11, 1561: a great battle that begins in the morning at the Port and ends late at night in the town square.
view traditionsAt the mouth of the Torrent de Sóller we find a natural bay of great beauty: there the fishermen of the valley settled down to shelter their boats from the waves and the storms. With time, Port de Sóller grew and became the main way of entry of goods of the valley but also in a weak point at the time of defending itself of the corsairs that frightened the Mediterranean Sea in the 14th century.
Today, from that time, the Picada Tower (1622) is still a watchtower to protect the entire Valley located on the outskirts of Port de Sóller and the old fishermen's houses, still preserved in the seaman's Santa Catalina area.
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