La Llotja was built in 1428 by the Mallorcan architect Guillermo Sagrera, and it looks, at first glance, like a cathedral. It is not. It was Palma's maritime stock exchange, where merchants and sea captains met to declare their cargoes and fix prices after weeks or months at sea.

The building once sat directly on the waterfront. Ships moored against it. The broad avenue separating it from the sea didn't exist until the 1960s, when the coastline was pushed back for traffic. The angel carved above the entrance was the guardian of sailors, who came here to give thanks after surviving the journey.

Today La Llotja hosts free exhibitions, meaning one of the finest Gothic secular buildings in the Mediterranean can be walked into entirely on a whim.

VoiceMap's tours use La Llotja to trace Palma's medieval commercial power, connecting the building's trading past to the city's history as a dominant force in Mediterranean trade.