Sa Llotja

The door opens straight into one high hall. Slender pillars twist up from the floor in spirals and split into the ribs of the vault overhead, like palm trunks spreading into fronds. Look up: carved seals sit high in the stonework, easy to miss if you only look at what is on the floor.

What is on the floor changes, because the hall is used for exhibitions — sculpture one season, a large installation set among the pillars another. The building holds its own whatever is showing. It went up in the 15th century as the exchange of Palma's merchants, and the grand scale of the space says plainly how much money moved through it.

Entry is free, and the streets around it are full of bars and restaurants, so it slots easily into an evening in the old town.

• Closed on Mondays, and shut through the middle of the day between a morning and an evening session.
• What stands inside depends on the current exhibition; the building itself is the reason to come.
• There is little information on site about the history, so read up before you go.
• There is no toilet listed at the building; the nearest free public one is about 344 m away.

Sa Llotja stands on its own square in the old town of Palma, and most people arrive on foot while walking the centre. Two bus stops, Antoni Maura and Plaça de la Reina, sit about 160 m and 170 m away in a straight line, so the last stretch from the bus is a couple of streets.

Drivers will find paid parking about 84 m and 106 m away. A drinking fountain is about 44 m off, and a tourist information office about 190 m.

Best: the evening session, rounded off at one of the bars on the surrounding streets.

Avoid: Mondays and the midday break, when the doors are shut.

The hall opens in two sessions from Tuesday to Sunday, and its thick stone walls keep the inside cooler than the streets in summer heat.