The town of Artà in Majorca - Sant Salvador Sanctuary

The sanctuary - which originated in the thirteenth century - was long a refuge against the incursions of the Barbary pirates. It is now the spiritual center of the city of Artà, a Marian pilgrimage site and a tourist site that offers a magnificent view of Artà and its surroundings.

The Sanctuary of Sant Salvador in Artà should not be confused with the Sanctuary of Sant Salvador near Felanitx, which also stands on top of a rocky hill called Puig de Sant Salvador…

It is located in the geographic center of the Artà peninsula in the north-east of the island of Majorca, and this has made ​​it a strategic position during different historical eras.

The sanctuary dominates the city of Artà in the north, from the top of the city, the Church of the Transfiguration, one enters the sanctuary by a staircase of 180 steps. However, a small winding road leads to hop in a car.

Because of its height, the sanctuary offers a panoramic view of the entire region, on the coast and hills, orchards of almond, fig and olive groves of the valley and up to the Tower of Canyamel with, in the background, bare and rugged peaks of the Serra de Llevant.

Inside the enclosure there is the shrine of Sant Salvador itself, home of the Donat, that is to say the person responsible for the maintenance of the whole, and a cistern dating from the early the seventeenth century.

The main tower of the fortified walls, dedicated to St. Michael, is a tower attached to the wall. At the foot of the Tour St. Michael (Torre de Sant Miquel / Torre de San Miguel) is a monument dedicated to the victims of the civil war ("A totes les victimes de la Guerra Civil"), which dates from the mid twentieth century.

During the Muslim, the tenth to the thirteenth century occupation, there was on the hill, a fortress, which is called the Almudaina of Artà, which defend the region Yartan (Artà) aimed for. Inside Almudaina was a small mosque.

The Catalan conquest of Mallorca by Jaume I ended by taking the last corner Muslims in the mountains of Artà March 31, 1230, Palm Sunday. Jaume I the Conqueror lived in the citadel of Almudaina, a chapel was built on the site of the mosque. The king gave the hill of Sant Salvador to the monastery of Premonstratensian canons of Bellpuig, located 3 km south-west of Artà.

In the sixteenth century, the fortress was strengthened to provide shelter to the villagers during the frequent attacks of the Barbary pirates.

Much of today’s fortress - the wall of a meter thick with its nine towers - is the result of restoration work carried out in the late 1960s, in 1967, the entire chamber was restored at the initiative of the Society of Friends of the Castles (Sociedad de Amigos de los Castillos). A new tower, the main tower of Sant Miquel, was built and slots placed around the perimeter.

The church of Sant Salvador was the parish church of the parish until the construction in 1573, the Church of the Transfiguration, located below.

When a terrible epidemic of bubonic plague that hit the region of Artà, Capdepera and Son Servera during the summer of 1820, the St. Saviour church was used as a hospital to prevent the spread of plague, local authorities decided to burn the building dating from the thirteenth century. The epidemic killed more than 1,200 victims.

The reconstruction of the temple began in 1825 and the new church was consecrated in 1832, the two towers that flank were not completed until the late nineteenth century.

The current appearance of the sanctuary is the result of a restoration done in 1971.

According to tradition, the statue was brought from Catalonia Majorca by Premonstratensian canons who accompanied King Jaume I, during the reconquest in 1229. It is considered one of the oldest Romanesque sculptures of Mallorca.

During the fire that followed the plague of 1820, the Virgin of San Salvador was kept at the Premonstratensian monastery of St. Mary of Bellpuig.