Església de Sant Pere i Sant Pau

The church of Sant Pere i Sant Pau (Saint Peter and Saint Poul), was built in the years between 1410 – 1445, due to a growing congregation of Algaida.

The church construction you see here, is the second temple of this location. There are only very limited information available about the first chapel here.

Inside the church, you will notice a very beautiful Baroque altarpiece.

The parish was created when the religious and administrative centre was transferred around 1435 from the old chapel of Castellitx to Algaida. The current church, built in the Gothic style with some Baroque influences, was built on the ruins of a previous church in the 16th and 17th centuries. Significant works were carried out in the 18th century, such as the construction of the chapel of the Rosary (Roser), at the request of the rector of Algaida, Francesc Togores (1742 – 1771).

The facing of the main frontage is divided into three lines of imposts. The main doorway, in the Gothic style, has an arch decorated with two achivolts around the tympanum with an image of the Virgin Mary. Above this, a rectangular window and a rose window, all crowned by a mixtilinear Baroque style upper wall crowned with a cross. The belfry rises to the right of the main facade, with its square five-leveled tower and top; there are two rounded arches on each side of fifth section.

The interior is made up of a single nave divided into six sections, cross-ribbed vaulted ceiling and a gallery in the access area, with a lowered arch and a lowered edge vaulted ceiling, bearing the coat of arms of Algaida (a tower) in the middle. There are six side chapels, with rounded arches and cross-ribbed vaulted ceilings. The transverse arch, separating the presbytery from the nave, is rounded and shows two shields. The lower section of the nave walls are lined with tiles, dating back to the 1788 reform, and the upper part is graced with six rounded Gothic windows on each side, with stained glass in the third and fourth.

The main altarpiece is a large baroque-style structure of five vertical sections and three horizontal ones, four paintings in the predella and thirteen images gracing the remainder. The image of the Virgen de la Mamella (in the centre of the second horizontal section) is a gothic marble sculpture and patron saint of stonemasons. An image of Christ is displayed at the top.

The chapels on the left side are dedicated to: Santa Catalina Tomás, Corazón de Jesús, San José, the deep chapel (dedicated to the Virgin of the Rosary), Cristo de la Sangre and the Assumption. The chapels on the right are as follows: the first contains a lowered arch leading to the belfry, with a baptismal font. This is followed by the chapel of the Immaculate Conception, that of San Sebastián, the side entrance, the chapel of San Antonio Abad and that of San Juan Bautista.

Only recently, the church houses the gothic altarpiece of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, originally from the church at Castellitx.