Taking a look at the sinkhole. | Miquel À. Cañellas

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This Wednesday marked the fortieth anniversary of autonomy for the Balearics and the 39th anniversary of Balearics Day. A public holiday since 1998, there are plenty of attractions in Palma each year. But this year there was an unexpected additional attraction - the sinkhole that had appeared on the Avenidas on Monday.

Gastronomy from the islands in Sa Feixina Park, a Balearic Islands market on Passeig Sagrera, Minorcan horses in Plaça Porta Santa Catalina; these were among the many attractions that had been organised, but the sinkhole was another one not to be missed.

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Public holiday or not, personnel from the Emaya municipal services agency were working on fixing the hole. They have started to fill it in; the attraction will be shortlived. Workers were amused by the numbers of spectators - "we've never seen so many people," quipped one.

One person who went to have a look said that she couldn't understand why the hole had appeared; "it's rained much harder before". Someone else reckoned that "a city that covers its history is doomed to failure", referring to the sixteenth-century bastion that the sinkhole had exposed.

Once the hole has been fully filled in, it will be left for a couple of days for the soil to settle and dry before the road is resurfaced.