Soller

Soller is a town and municipality near the northwest coast of Majorca, in the Balearic Islands of Spain. As of 2004, the present-day economy is based mainly on tourism, complementary to an agriculture based on massive orchards of citrus and olive trees, which has, in recent years, suffered from low prices. Soller is also known for the houses built in the early twentieth century by emigrants who returned wealthy to the town.

Since 1980, Soller has hosted a week-long international folklore festival every July.

The town proper is some 3 km inland, from the Port de Soller, in a large, bowl-shaped valley that also includes the village of Fornalutx and the hamlet of Biniaraix. The combined population is around 12,000.

The Torre Picada (watchtower) and the castle in the port were constructed in the 16th century to defend against the "Corsairs" or Barbary pirates. Part of the town was also fortified, but all that remains of this is a piece of the wall near the parish church.

Soller is linked by rail, and by a highway with a toll tunnel, to the Majorcan capital of Palma. The Andratx-Pollenca highway also runs through the valley.

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Soller".