Workers cleaning the cotton with “els batans”. Photograph courtesy of Albert Aguilera
On the road to sa Cabana des Pont d’Inca we find one of the most outstanding and unique examples of factory heritage that characterize this area of industrial tradition. Popularly known as sa Fàbrica de Ses Llistes, this building is a reflection of that time of industrial expansion, when there were numerous wire and fabric factories in various parts of the island, as a result of the triumph of the modern cotton industry in the 20th century. Even during the Civil War, the only textile industry available to the rebel side was that of Mallorca.
Sa Fàbrica de Ses Llistes was created in 1923 under the name of “Ca’n Rul-lan” – Pedro Antonio Rullan S.- and later, with the change of ownership in 1928, it was changed to “Compañía Algodonera Balear S.A.”. Finally, it was transferred again under the name of “Textil Mallorquina”. As it was an innovative building, it was commissioned to an architectural firm in Barcelona. It was a branch of the main factory in Sóller. Here they found the ideal conditions for their establishment, such as the transportation of the products by railway – formerly dedicated exclusively to freight wagons – or the use of the Gros torrent for waste disposal, as well as tax advantages.
Between 150 and 180 people worked in this factory, mostly women, where the whole process was carried out: from the cotton wire to the weaving, dyeing and making of garments. For this reason, attached to this, the same company installed, around the early 1940s, a spinning factory that was in charge of transforming the fibre into yarn.
Up to 94 looms were in operation. The manufacture of this company functioned until 1972 due to a crisis caused by several factors: competition with Catalonia, lack of modernization, lack of adaptation to new raw materials such as synthetic fibres, etc. The last owner, Damià Mayol, gave the old buildings as long as the project was for educational purposes. It is for this reason that in 1980, the teaching cooperative Es Liceu was established. The rehabilitation project was entrusted to the architect Sebastià Cruelles, a project that won a prize for the recovery of buildings.
In terms of its style and typology, according to the Es Liceu school archives, this building was the first factory built in Mallorca with a typically industrial design, as these were previously built in traditional buildings. The building is characteristic of the factories of Catalonia and follows the English industrial model. The iron framework that supports the building stands out, which made it possible to have a building without central columns for greater optimization of space and the use of rivets instead of welding. It was also the first industrial building in Mallorca to use Portland cement.
This fact meant a complication for the master builders of the time, who did not know how to apply the technique or how to store the sacks of concrete, as it was a material that hardened very quickly when it was bathed in water. Its design also contemplated, in a pioneering manner, the construction of terraced housing for the factory workers who had a house with a garden, also following the Anglo-Saxon model. It is the only remaining example of this type of construction in Mallorca.
