The Island of Mallorca enjoys a privileged position in the Mediterranean as a crossroads between the Spanish peninsula and Italy.

Its prized location made it attractive and consequently much fought over, especially by early seafarers. The result is that a rich variety of cultures have all influenced and left their mark on the island, most notably Phoenician and Greco-Romanic.

In more modern times Majorca serve as a geographical bridge between our peninsula and Italy, this last acting as an influential indicator of fashionable art style in Europe, and also as an evident influence on the magnificent Mallorcan architecture.
The scale of the houses on the island, in addition to the architectural style and often splendor, ensure that Mallorca’ s architectural heritage is comparable to any other region of Spain, in terms of both quality and beauty.

"Son Nicolau" appears, first, in the XI Majorcan encyclopedia around the mid 18th century, as the property of Pere Antoni Nicolau. The encyclopedia also details the renovations and extensions made a century later, including; a chapel, a grand façade with arches on the ground and first floors which bare a resemblance to those at “La Palachina dei Plachere” a pavilion in the gardens of the Farnesse family palace in Caprarola, Italy (renaissance in style, with a pentagon shaped floor).

Imitating Italian tradition Mallorcan families had a town house (casa Pairal) and a country house (Possessio). Son meaning a house with rural land acts as a pre-fix to the family name “Son Nicolau”.

The house also had a wall surrounding the orchid, which is the basic concept of a historical garden “Hortus Conclussus”. The design of the garden reflects the style and the tone of the period. The influence of the great Italian Villas, particularly; Raixa, Alfabia, La granja and Son Moragues (to name but a few) is obvious in the many magnificent examples of grand villas and mansions on the island. Also of note is that Son Nicolau also figures amongst the four engravings Muntaner produced in the 18th century.