The Iron Men Of Son Ferriol

The surname Ferriol is one of a group of names common to Majorca which share a linguistic root. Like Ferrer or Ferragut the origin is Latin and the name Ferriol is, essentially, "man of iron". The migration of these various iron men was such that they came to predominantly settle in Catalan-speaking parts of the mainland. From Aragon, the Ferriols spread out, moving south to Valencia where there is a place called Ferriol in Alicante, but they appeared to be from a lineage that could be traced to an Aragonese knight called Francisco Ferriol, and at the time of the Catalan-Aragonese occupation of Majorca, Ferriols crossed the sea from the mainland and established themselves here.

The area of Son Ferriol in Palma has a vague history. The name suggests that it would have been one of the great "possessions", the estates formed long ago. Yet it doesn't appear in the list of Palma's possessions. However, in modern times, it was created as an urbanisation almost one hundred years ago when a priest by the name of Bartomeu Font acquired the "possession" from an Anna M. Bonafé in 1917. So it was indeed a possession, even if now it is not listed as such.

The history does, though, go very much further back in time and to the years after the conquest of Majorca, when the existence of a possession called Son Ferriol is noted in the story of one Pere Maurí. He was a Cathar priest, and Catharism, denounced by the Catholic church as being "the church of Satan", was subjected to persecution. Maurí came to Majorca in 1321 and he was directed to the possession of Son Ferriol where there were descendants of Cathars.

By this time, Catharism had all but died out. For nigh on two hundred years, wars had been waged and barbarities committed because of it. An Inquisition against Cathars still existed when Pere Maurí arrived in Majorca in the same year as his mentor, Guillaume Bélibaste, was burnt at the stake. Bélibaste was considered to be the last Cathar priest, though this did leave Maurí. His stay at Son Ferriol was not long, a month or so. He left Majorca on a merchant ship that sailed from Soller. He was eventually imprisoned but there is no further record as to what happened to him. It is probably fair to assume that his fate was not a pleasant one.

Maurí might have believed that he could find a refuge. Though the Inquisition against Cathars remained in place, Cathar descendants were being allowed to live in relative peace so long as they confined themselves to communities away from cities. Son Ferriol was such a place, separated as it was from the "Ciutat" (Palma), and among the people that Maurí encountered there was a Ferriol.

This Ferriol wasn't necessarily a Cathar descendant. Son Ferriol was inhabited by some families who were descended from those who had joined Jaume I during the conquest. It was normal for them to end up with Majorcan land, so in the case of Son Ferriol its name would have been derived from the Ferriol family. But it is here where more vagueness creeps in. Descendants of Jaume I's compatriots came to form the Majorcan nobility, but, rather like Son Ferriol appears to be missing from the list of old possessions in Palma, so the name Ferriol fails to appear in the inventory of this historical nobility. There are Ferrers and Ferraguts but no Ferriol. Why not is something of a mystery. Maybe, after all, it had something to do with Catharism and the intolerance shown to it.

Though the Son Ferriol of today is part of Palma, its former separateness is reflected in how it is often described - a village within Palma. This motif was found on the poster for the Son Ferriol fair last weekend, one that generates more expectation than many other fairs, partly because it heralds the arrival of the spring fair season in Majorca.

Amidst the farming and the animals, the horse show, the painting, embroidery and photographic exhibitions, the pipers, the folk dance and the fireworks, there was also an exhibition entitled "carts and tools". Residing in the agricultural memory of Son Ferriol, as with so many other parts of Majorca, is the recollection of how the land was worked, how vehicles were made, how horses were shod. The memory of wood and of iron. The ancient iron men of Son Ferriol were no doubt be proud.

Back to list