Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: Frederic Chopin

Mallorca is the largest island in the Mediterranean Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain. Mallorca is an extremely popular holiday destination. The Palma de Mallorca Airport, one of the busiest in Spain, is used by about 30 million tourists per year. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the island was invaded by the Vandals in 425. The time of the Vandals ended, when Byzantine troops general took the island in 534. The first Muslim arrivals were in 707. These ended the Byzantine domination and established their own hegemony. Until 903, the island was part of the Umayyad Caliphate. From Between 902 and 1229 the island was under Islamic control. James I of Aragon ( aka "Jaume el Conqueridor") conquered Mallorca in December 1229. Valldemossa is a small town (pop.~2000), that is well known since the 1840s when George Sand published the autobiographical novel "Un hiver à Majorque" (A Winter in Majorca). George Sand wrote about her trip and stay with Frederic Chopin on the island, due to the illness of the pianist. Sand, Chopin, and Sand's two children stayed in the charterhouse of Valldemossa from November 1838 until February 1839, during which time they hoped that Chopin's tuberculosis would improve. However his health did not improve, and so they returned home. They had stayed in the "Cartoixa", a former Carthusian monastery, that originally was the palace of Sancho I de Mallorca ("Sancho el Pacifico"), dating back to 1309. www.cartoixadevalldemossa.com/en/