Palma Cathedral Festival of Light - Luck or genius?

From the time of the 1229 conquest, there had been eight bishops before Antoni de Galiana was elected on March 5, 1363. Pope Urban V confirmed his appointment and he was consecrated in the Cathedral in October of that year. Antoni soon gained a reputation for being a disciplinarian. He dealt with priests who interpreted their vows rather liberally. Having a concubine wasn't entirely uncommon back in those days. This ceased to be the case once Antoni started administering his punishments.

More than this, Antoni was celebrated for having promoted new work to the Cathedral, which wasn't easy because of all the funds that were leaving Mallorca in order to finance the latest war adventures, specifically those of Pere el Cerimoniós, Peter IV of Aragon who had deposed Jaume III in also becoming the King of Mallorca. This work included the building of the chapel where he was later buried and the installation of a rose window, the largest in Christianity, or so it has been said. Referred to as the Gothic Eye, the stained glass was added in the sixteenth century.

The phenomenon of the reflection made by light passing through the main rose window two times a year is now so popular that it is hard to believe that this popularity is only comparatively recent. It was obviously known about well before 2007, but it was in that year that the Balearic Mathematics Society drew attention to it. Some twenty or so people went along to have a look. Seventeen years on, and the Cathedral will once more be packed and the whole thing streamed on YouTube.

It is the Cathedral which dubbed the phenomenon 'Festa de la llum' (Festival of Light). This is anything but some modern-day branding or form of promotion, as it is a reference to how, from the sixth century, the day of Candlemas was referred to. So, although the phenomenon - the forming of the 'vuit', the eight, by the reflection under the smaller window - occurs on the feast day of Saint Martin and at Candlemas (equal periods before and after the winter solstice), the festival is, strictly speaking, reserved for February 2.

A great deal of symbolism has been attached to the phenomenon, but a question is when this symbolism came to be appreciated. The figure of eight, so it is maintained, is an allusion to the Eighth Day and therefore to eternity. Christianity has a tendency to attach a good deal of importance to numbers (as opposed to numerology, which is a branch of the occult), and so the significance of the number eight also translates as a new life or new beginning. There were, for example, eight people on Noah's Ark.

Back in the fourteenth century at the time of Antoni de Galiana and two centuries later when the stained glass appeared, were they contemplating this symbolism? Did they, or indeed anyone else, such as those involved with the construction of the Cathedral, truly have this in mind? Is the phenomenon an example of mediaeval genius or was it just luck?

There may have been a bit of both, which would seem to owe a good deal to the orientation of the Cathedral building and how the original construction followed a key architectural principle that the Muslims had adopted when they built the mosque. The Cathedral was basically built on top of the mosque.

A researcher, art historian Antoni Pons, has expended a great deal of effort in considering the location and orientation of the mosque. He has concluded, and it is a reasonable conclusion, that the mosque didn't look to Mecca as they couldn't have known where Mecca was in relation to Madina Mayurqa (Palma) back in the time of the Muslim occupation from the early tenth century. This was because of the latitude and not having the right star to guide them. The mosque therefore followed the principle of ones in north Africa, which face the sunrise at the winter solstice.

The orientation of the Cathedral, therefore, was based on the winter solstice sunrise. And there is a separate but less publicised phenomenon which does rather prove the point. On December 21, the sun passes through the eastern rose window and is projected onto the western window. Es Baluard is a particularly good vantage point to observe something that now attracts increasing numbers of people, rather like the 'vuit' gradually brought in more and more spectators.

Pons is of the view that the twice-a-year phenomenon is "totally fortuitous" and that no one, including Antoni de Galiana, could have anticipated the effect. The notion of mediaeval genius is therefore bunkum. Or is it? Is it simply coincidence that the phenomenon occurs on the two days that it does? Orientation towards the winter solstice sunrise would still have involved a number of possibilities. Eight maybe? How did they get it pretty much bang on?