Banys Àrabs

Sunlight drops through five round openings in the cupola and lands on a floor worn away in the middle. The wear comes from people standing at the centre of the room to photograph the doorway and the garden beyond it, and that framed view is still the picture everyone takes.

Twelve columns hold up the small domed room, and every one of them was taken from an earlier Roman building, so the baths of Moorish Palma stand on salvaged Roman stone. The room is in rough condition. Next door, a plain brick cube holds a model of the baths as they once worked.

Outside, the garden is where the visit slows down: shaded seats and a stillness that the busy lanes of the old town rarely offer.

• Cash only. Cards are not accepted at the entrance, so bring euros.
• The site is small: seeing all of it takes ten to twenty-five minutes.
• There are toilets on site.
• The entrance is not wheelchair accessible.
• On a hot day the garden has seats in the shade, but it does not stay cool.

The Banys Àrabs sit in the Old City behind the cathedral, where the lanes are narrow and only a few streets take traffic, so the last stretch is on foot whatever you arrive in.

Buses stop at Església de Sant Francesc, about 240 m away in a straight line, and at Plaça de Cort, about 310 m away. Drivers can leave the car at Plaça de Sant Francesc, about 260 m away, or at the paid car park at Parc de la Mar, about 330 m away beside the seafront park below the cathedral, and walk up through the old town from there.

Best: a sunny morning or midday, when the sun stands high enough to drop through the oculi into the domed room.

Avoid: the hottest summer afternoons, when the garden stays warm even in its shaded seats.

Direct sun is what fills the bath room with light, and the garden gives shade but little relief from real heat.