Fiesta Of Vendetta: Canamunt, Canavall

I recently had a conversation about "mafias" in Mallorca. A point I made was, as I have written in a previous article, that it is a term used widely and pejoratively and almost always inaccurately, though I could concede that there is the old saying about Mallorca that it is "Sicily without the guns". Yes, came a response, that may be true, but then the Cosa Nostra had learned from Mallorca. This may or may not be true, but Mallorca had, historically, circumstances not dissimilar to those which gave rise to the original Sicilian mafia of the nineteenth century and which produced the island-wide warfare that broke out at the end of the sixteenth century and that lasted for much of the following century. This was perhaps Mallorca's most infamous interlude: the Canamunt and the Canavall vendetta.

The background to these two factions was what had happened in the decades before the vendetta started. Following the Germanies civil war 1521 to 1523, there were land confiscations and land grabs by a nobility which was often absent as well as any number of lawsuits and a general absence of interest in Mallorca on behalf of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Things didn't improve under his son, Philip II, and so Mallorca was largely left to its own devices and to lawlessness that was never far from the surface and which finally and truly surfaced as a result of the feud between two families - the Anglada and Rossinyol. They and their supporters came to acquire the names Canamunt and Canavall because they lived in the villages of Amunt and Avall in Palma.

Things all kicked off in 1598 and what was to follow was in a sense another civil war but not between the poor and the rich, which was essentially what the Germanies had been about, but between rival nobilities and others who were drawn into the conflict from right across the island. It was time, until things calmed down in the 1660s, of appalling violence, assassination, banditry and protection racketeering. Here were, in essence, two mafias going head to head in a vendetta because honour had supposedly been impugned.

Banditry, not exactly uncommon in the Mediterranean of former times, was to be a principal cause of the rise of the mafia after Sicily had been liberated from a feudal system but also exposed to the desires of land grabbers who could act with freedom because the island was so poorly policed. But well before it emerged, Mallorca was ripe with the trappings of what was to consume the Italian island, and it even included the 1619 assassination of a judge - Jaume Joan de Berga y Salas - who had sought to bring criminals to justice. The vendetta was such that the reasons for it having started were forgotten as gangs and gangsters, who would align themselves with one of the two factions (occasionally swapping sides), created decades-long mayhem. The viciousness was dreadful and certain towns suffered more than others. The Canavall of Pollensa were especially unpleasant. A woman and two daughters were raped because they were suspected of being for the Canamunt; more than 130 people were murdered.

In light of all this, you might well ask why anyone would wish to create a fiesta which takes as its theme the Canamunt and Canavall vendetta. Well, the collective Orgull Llonguet in Palma wants to do precisely this, and it would seem that there is going to be a Canamunt i Canavall fiesta this summer. The provisional date had been 12 July but may now be 1 August. Orgull means pride, and the llonguet is a type of bread. The collective describes itself as being "gastro-festival". In other words, it has been and is engaged in creating different types of fiesta for Palma where there has been discontent with the organisation of January's patron saint celebrations for Sant Sebastià and where there isn't a summer fiesta as such.

What they have in mind for this fiesta heaven only knows, though a promised battle will feature nothing more dangerous than water. It is probably safe to say that it will all be tongue in cheek in the same way as Sant Kanut is, this being the alternative Sant Sebastià fiesta. For Sant Kanut an image of this fake saint is carried in the style of the images of real saints. The name comes from the Catalan "canut" to mean a marijuana joint. Indeed, the association of Canamunt-Ciutat Antiga residents in Palma already have a fiesta in which there is the wacky image of Sant Rescat (Saint Rescue), and the Orgull Llonguet one will complement this in making what is hoped will become a major summer fiesta in the city.

It seems a strange old justification for a fiesta, but then strange things happen in Mallorca. Fortunately, they are not the strange of the seventeenth century.

The Vendetta Years: Canamunt and Canavall

Pollensa's Guillem Cifre de Colonya cultural centre is named after the philanthropist who founded the co-operative Colonya bank. The Cifre centre stages many exhibitions, mostly of a more humane nature than the subject of the presentation that was given yesterday evening. This was for a book by two historians, Pere Salas and Antoni Domingo, who have researched what was one of the most turbulent periods in Mallorca's history, the seventeenth century.

One says one of the most turbulent periods, though it is hard to distinguish the seventeenth century from others in terms of turbulence. Mallorca was characterised by violence, pestilence, famine, drought, piracy for centuries. It might have now acquired a reputation as a paradise island but it must have been a God awful place to live at times.

The Salas-Domingo book looks at the warfare and vendettas between two clans - the Canamunt and the Canavall. What is staggering about this factional strife is the fact that it lasted as long as it did - for much of the seventeenth century. The origins lay with two families - the Anglada and the Rossinyol who, respectively, gave rise to the Canamunt and Canavall. They were families who had irreconcilable differences that came to a head at the end of the sixteenth century when Nicolau Rossinyol made the grave error of falling for Isabel Anglada. When the Angladas opposed this love match, the Rossinyols took offence, and seventy-plus years of violence kicked off. In fact, the roots of the differences went back much further, to the time of the conquest of Mallorca in the thirteenth century. These two families hated each other's guts and had done so for centuries.

The book establishes that, though there was violence perpetrated by both sides all across Mallorca (the two clans originated from Palma), Pollensa was the scene of some of the worst atrocities. In one year alone, 1662, nine people were murdered violently in Pollensa. And this was some 16 years after peace was supposed to have broken out between the two clans.

The Canamunt-Canavall vendetta is often styled as one between the aristocracy and others in Mallorcan society, but both the Angladas and Rossinyols were of noble background and the support they gained didn't always follow a split between aristocrat and common man. The styling of the conflict in such a way may also have had something to do with a hangover from the Germanies uprising of the sixteenth century, one that was against the nobility and which culminated in the siege of Alcúdia and is now a theme of the summer's dramatised street theatre programme in Alcúdia - the Via Fora.

More than anything, though, the vendetta showed what a lawless place Mallorca was and especially away from Palma. One of the island's legendary figures, but one who is little known, was a character called Llorenç Coll, aka "Barona", who, though a farmer, was notorious for the havoc he wreaked in parts of the north of the island. He would swap sides between Canamunt and Canavall as it suited him. He met his end when royal forces finally started to get something of a grip on Mallorca, but in truth, for most of the seventeenth century, the island was ruled by bandits and thugs.

As for Nicolau and Isabel, the story was tragic. The boy fled Mallorca, violence having been unleashed between the warring families. Isabel was to lead a life as a recluse in the family home. On the day she died, Nicolau returned to Mallorca. He headed to the church where her body lay in rest. The final part of Nicolau and Isabel's story may only be legend, but if so, then it reflected, awfully, the feud between the families. Looking at the body, it was said that the dead Isabel's hands reached out for Nicolau and attacked his face. Nicolau was found in a pool of blood, his tongue having been ripped out. Isabel's face bore a smile.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.