The monasteries of Mallorca – Santuario de Sant Salvador, Felanitx
Monastery history from 1348 – 1992
The Santuario de Sant Salvador is enthroned on a plateau on the Sant Salvador mountain at an altitude of 509 metres and offers a fantastic panoramic view of the whole of Mallorca as well as of the Santuario mountain with its impressive fortress ruins. The Santuario was founded in 1348 to commemorate the victims of the “Black Plague”, which claimed the lives of half the inhabitants of Felanitx at the time. The original small church was built in 1349, but was then rebuilt at the beginning of the 16th century and extended in 1715 because the town of Felanitx had grown considerably. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the monastery served as the seat of the “Brotherhood of the Hermits of San Pedro and San Antonio” until it was then taken over by two Mallorcan families and used largely for secular purposes. On Sundays and public holidays, mass is still celebrated in the church at 5 pm.
The monastery church is a simple building and houses a 13th century Madonna. Interesting is a small room in front of the church, where small gifts, thank-you notes, souvenirs, photos of people who want to thank God because they were healed or spared from illnesses and other calamities are kept. In front of the monastery there is an impressive 37-metre-high monument to Christ, with a chapel in its base where people can pray and meditate.
Once a monastery, today a “monastery hotel”
Today the monastery is run as a small “monastery hotel” – in addition to its religious use on holidays. It has 20 guest rooms and 2 apartments, which architecturally, with vaulted ceilings and natural stone walls, pleasantly transpose tradition into the present day. There is also a restaurant on the premises (said to be the oldest in Mallorca) serving exquisite traditional Mallorcan dishes and a cafeteria.