The town of Felanitx in Majorca - Sant Salvador Sanctuary

Do not confuse the Sanctuary of Sant Salvador de Felanitx with the sanctuary of Sant Salvador Artà, which is about fifty kilometers north-east, on another Mount appointed him as Puig de Sant Salvador.

The Sanctuary of Sant Salvador, founded in the fourteenth century, is one of the greatest pilgrimage sites of the island.

The sanctuary is distant 6.5 km from the town of Felanitx, away from the road Ma-4010, which connects the port of Felanitx Portocolom on the east coast of Majorca. A small road 5 km is on the right, and tight switchbacks up to the sanctuary and the road offers many points of view, past a small chapel in front of a large stone cross, the Creu del Picot, then before the monument to Christ the King.

This road in good condition, was built in 1923-1927 and is used by many cyclists as a training course.

In clear weather, the terraces of the sanctuary, and those of the monument to Christ the King and the Creu del Picot, offer magnificent views of almost the entire island of Majorca

• to the north, bays Pollença and Alcúdia and Cap de Formentor ;
• to the east, the east coast with Portocolom ;
• to the south, end of the Serra de Llevant and plain Migjorn and, on clear days, until Cabrera Island off the south coast;
• to the west, the plain of Mallorca (Es Pla de Mallorca), dotted with several shrines on the heights;
• to the northwest you can see the Serra de Tramuntana.

Geographical coordinates of the sanctuary: 39° 27’ 20” N, 3° 11’ 10” E

In addition to being a place of pilgrimage, the shrine had different secondary uses over the centuries: in the sixteenth century, there was a "grammar school", in the seventeenth century, the building served as a watchtower to guard against attacks by Barbary pirates. The church and the buildings for pilgrims were rebuilt in the course of the eighteenth century.

In 1824, the sanctuary was created a community of hermits who lived there until 1851. In 1885, the town of Felanitx, who was owner of the sanctuary, ancillary buildings and land (finca) of Puig de Sant Salvador, sold them at auction. The new owner was Don Juan Antonio Puig y Montserrat (1813-1894), a native of Felanitx, who was bishop of Puerto Rico. Antonio Puig donated all the diocese of Majorca, which gave sanctuary to a Majorcan congregation hermit monks in 1891.

The Congregation of Hermits of St. Paul and St. Anthony (Congregació d’Ermitans de Sant Pau i Sant Antoni / Congregación de Ermitanos de San Pablo y San Antonio) took charge of the sanctuary until 1992, when the last monk disappeared. The mountain and the sanctuary are still owned by the Diocese of Majorca, but are run by lay brothers and sisters of Felanitx.

Although the sanctuary has the appearance of a fortress, it retains two remarkable cultural treasures: a Gothic altarpiece of the Passion of the effigy of the Saviour and an effigy of the Virgin.

The sanctuary is always a popular place of pilgrimage, in a room on the courtyard in front of the church, you can see many ex-voto and poignant prayers to Our Lady of Sant Salvador. On the pilgrimage route that goes to the sanctuary, is a small chapel containing a sculpture representing the popular tradition of the discovery by a shepherd of the image of the Mare de Déu de Sant Salvador.

In a more secular kind, are exposed six jerseys cycling world champion Guillermo Timoner Obrador, a native track cyclist Felanitx.

In the fifteenth century, an altar of stone was placed behind the altar of the chapel of origin, this altarpiece depicts the Passion of the Christ Image of Beirut (Passió de la Imatge del Crist de Berit / Pasión de la Imagen de Cristo in Berit). This altarpiece is now in a chapel to the right of the current church.

Cope with the influx of pilgrims, who went on the hill on holidays, the existing church is not enough. In 1707 began the construction of a new Church of Our Lady of St. Saviour (Mare de Déu de Sant Salvador), which is the present church. In 1715, the church not yet fully completed, was consecrated. On 23 and 24 August of the following year, 1716, was celebrated with solemnity transfer the statue of the Virgin from the side chapel to the new altarpiece of the main altar located in the apse of the new church. This Baroque altarpiece from the early eighteenth century, dated 1713, is the work of a sculptor from Valencia, Pere Joan Codonyer.

During the years 1930-1942 the sanctuary underwent major restoration and a new altar, carved in alabaster, was built. The image of the Mare de Déu de Sant Salvador had the honor of papal coronation in 1934, solemnly held in the courtyard of the parish church of Felanitx.

A manger diorama is located near the entrance of the church.

This cult of the Passion of the effigy of Christ (Passio Imaginis Christi) appeared in the churches of the West from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. This devotion was based on a legend, reported by the Second Council of Nicaea (787), on an icon of the city of Beirut (Berit), while in Syria. According to this legend, the icon of the Savior, having been subjected to ridicule and cruelty of the Jews, that mimicked those of the Passion of Christ, shed blood and sweat, and made many miracles. This event took place in the year 765 in Beirut.

This miracle is celebrated on November 9 in the Roman Martyrology:

"Beryti in Syria, commemoratio Imaginis Salvatoris, quae a iudaeis crucifixa, tam copiosum emisit sanguinem, ut orientales et occidentales ecclesiae ex eo ubertim acceperint".

"Beirut Syria commemoration of the Image of Christ, the Jews crucified, who shed so much blood that the Churches of the East and the West received in abundance".

This cult spread to all the cathedrals of the Principality of Catalonia, where he had his own altars, and in some church and chapels dedicated to the Saviour late as the Chapel of Sant Salvador de Felanitx or that of Sant Salvador de Artà.

The altarpiece of the Passion of the effigy of the Saviour is a sculptor Majorcan Huguet Barxa (1428-1462), the mid-fifteenth century, it is the only Gothic altarpiece in Mallorca. The altarpiece in polychrome stone - carved in bas-relief in stone of Santanyí - represents a group of Jews which pierces the side of a crucifix. You can still see traces of polychromy on the altar.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were, on top of the Picot, a wooden cross, from 1928 to 1951 there was a cross of iron and copper. In 1957 was built a monumental cross artificial stone, 14 meters in height, Creu del Picot.

Mass is still celebrated in the church on holidays.

Phone: 00 34 971 836 136