Santuari de Consolació

mountaintop sanctuary of santuari de mare de deu de consolacio in sant joan mallorca

About

The Story of the Consolació convent in Sant Joan

This place, is believed to be the original church of the entire area, from the time of the conquest when the area was known as Sineu-Petra.

In 1541, the new massive parish church of Sant Joan was finished, leaving this sanctuary almost abandoned for years. However, the nobleman Arnau Sureda, bought the place to be able to keep offering religious services to the congregation.

In 1750, Pove Benedict XIV declared the year jubilee, meaning all sins to be forgiven and dept to the church reset, making churches and monasteries extremely popular again, gave this temple a new life.
However, less than 100 years later, in 1835, the prime minister of Spain, Juan Mendizábal seized all monasteries and churches that wasn’t in the governments ownership, in order to sell them to private investors. The goal, was to get funds for the Carlist War of Spain, and the investors was promised great return on investment.

The convent building

There are two sundials built by the engineer Rafel Soler from 1986. Ca’s Donat is located near the roofed area.
In the courtyard, a beautiful round door, which supposedly belongs to the original 13th century chapel, grants access to the church. It was restored between 1959 and 1966 by the architect J. Olesea. The restoration works included the western facade with a portico, a round door and a polychromed glass skylight. A wall belfry was erected on the back wall in the courtyard area.
The nave has a barrel vault supported by round arches. The square apse with a shell opens into the lady chapel with a central arch and two lateral arches that grant access to the stairs. The lady chapel with a coffered ceiling gets its light from the vault and six large windows. A mid 16th century statue of Mare de Déu has records dating from 1572 and was restored in 1917. It stands in a niche of the altarpiece rebuilt by the sculptor Tomàs Vila with fragments of older altarpieces.

Where

Get directions to Santuari de Consolació in Sant Joan

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Sant Joan

Sant Joan is a typical rural area in the plain area of Mallorca known as “es Pla”. In Sant Joan, traditional agrarian lifestyle predominate the local atmosphere making it an authentic and tranquil place to visit and explore. There are a number of points of interest to see in Sant Joan, both inside the village but also outside, i.e. the els Calderers ethnological museum, the hilltop sanctuary of Consolació, the old Catholic culture center and the massive parish of John the Baptist.

Sant Joan stays and things to do