The town of Esporles in Majorca - Sa Granja

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Introduction

Sa Granja of Esporles (La Granja de Esporlas in Castilian Spanish) is a beautiful and vast tenth century mansion surrounded by lush vegetation, beautiful and extensive gardens and fountains with their natural basins. But Sa Granja is a farm, a "finca" converted into an ethnographic museum where visitors can discover the customs of Mallorca in the past.

This finca has been at the heart of the Majorcan life since the tenth century, and it has a mix of rustic and majestic because, although used as a residence, it was also an area devoted to agricultural production was more hundred workers simultaneously. This is what gives an inexplicable charm to this well-preserved old building, which has a style of its own, but has at the same time the most decisive of the rich cultural heritage of the island elements.

Location

His field of Granja de Esporles. Click to enlarge the image.

Sa Granja is located west of the city of Esporles, 3 km from the city center, in the direction of Banyalbufar, turn left towards Puigpunyent after 2 km.

Visits

The Farm of Esporles (Sa Granja d’Esporles, La Granja de Esporlas)
Sa Granja is a living exhibition Majorcan customs through the ages: it illustrates and restores the old life, with its houses sheltering objects, furniture and vintage clothing, a craft museum with the instruments of traditional crafts, and even a former prison with his torture chamber… The tour allows you to discover all occupations linked to the activities of a firm: a dye, a small kitchen jams, an oil mill, a forge, a workshop wood turner and carpenter, candles, pottery, weaving, lace! In the garden, fountains, waterfalls, large variety of flowers and trees, many birds and farm animals, including the famous black pig Mallorca. Folk performances are held throughout the year to tourists to discover the traditions, traditional Majorcan Majorcan folk songs and dances in period costumes.
Sector I - Exterior
1 spinning raw wool. 2 Straw Cup (beating). 3 Mill potter (to grind clay). 4 a) Laundry. 4 b) Restaurant. 5 Presentation and workshop. 6 Exposure of agricultural tools. 7 panoramic view and house bathroom eighteenth century. 8 Garden rock with water jets and sundials. 9 Workshop dye.
The Laundry

The Potter Mill

The Shed

The Workshop

The Water Games

The Waterfall of the Old Flour Mill

The Pergola

The Rock Garden



Dyeing Workshop



Area II - First Floor
10 Show Florentine style with Louis XV furniture. 11 Fair throne theater stage. 12 room. 13 Laundry. 14 Arabic Tour converted chapel by the monks. 15 Main entrance with family portraits. 16 Majorcan Baroque Room (eighteenth century). 17 Renaissance Room with private library. 18 Portico of Florentine style. 19 Practice. 20 Bedroom (nineteenth century). 21 Gallery with ceramics exhibition and room. 22 Main dining room with tapestries and paintings. 23a) Majorcan kitchen with oven. 23b) WC
Hallway

The Florentine Room

The Throne Room




The Games Room

The Laundry

The Hermitage

The Majorcan House

The Bathroom

Renaissance Room with Library

The Portico


The Medical Office

The nineteenth century Room

Gallery

The Dining Room

The Kitchen



Sector III - Ground floor
24 Plumber. 25 Amphores to salt olives. 26 Water turbine and the dynamo for generating electricity. 27 press with olives. 28 Dried fruits. 29 Grape press and wine cellar. 30 alembic for distillation of aromatic plants and liqueurs. 31 stone basin for storing oil. 32 Carpentry. 33 Workshop rope. 34 Shoemaker and apparatus for garnish animals. 35 jewelry workshop, foundry, rolling cutter. 36 Warping. 36 a) Power loom. 36 b) Profession vertical weaving carpets. 36 c) horizontal Jobs for weaving the Majorcan canvas. 36 d) Embroiderer (Wednesdays and Fridays from 15:00 to 16 20:00, only in high season).
The Plumber	Turbine and Hydroelectric Dynamo

The Olive Press

The Cellar		The trays Oil

Area IV - Torrent
37 Cascade former flour mill. 38 Forest Park. Coal. 39 Fulling mill.
The Torrent
The beautiful jump of 10 meters in height shows the power flow from the source of La Granja. The river plunges underground for a mile to resurface with more flow to Canet.

Sector V - Basement
40 Utensils for the preparation of cheese. 41 peasant cuisine. Optional: path through the forest (1 200 m). Do not leave the path. Animals in the wild. Danger! 42 Warehouse grains. 43 Roller flour. 44 Instruments of torture. 45 Building "thirteenth century" (Tribunal). 46 Prison and torture chamber. 47 Guard Room. 48 Mill animal traction.
The Warehouse Grains (locust)		The Mill Grains

The Jail

The Torture Room
Since the Catalan and Aragonese conquest of Mallorca in 1229 until 1820 (when the Inquisition was abolished), torture was practiced on a widespread basis over the whole territory of the island. The Inquisition was established since the sixteenth century to the present Plaza Mayor (then known as the Casa Negra or Black House building). Moreover, torture was also practiced by the lords of the fiefs, which were in some cases the head of a civil and criminal jurisdiction. The lords punish crimes or offenses committed within their areas by indefinite stay in a small cell or cell located within the same manor houses (it is reported, for example, a documented case at Canet in Esporles). These practices were also being around La Granja: February 16, 1367, a Turkish slave, known as the Christian name of Alex, assaulted his lord, Don Jaume d’Olesa to Bunyolí. The slave was sentenced to have his right hand cut off and then hung on the farm belonging to the Lord Olesa in Esporles, in a conspicuous place. It is also reported as a result of the Revolta Forana in 1452, running on the square of Esporles of Miquel Forns, who was hanged on the gallows after undergoing torture.


Sector VI - Interior yards and Gardens
49 Patio with fountain (fifteenth century). Private chapel. Lacemaker (Wednesdays and Fridays from 15:00 to 16:20, only in high season). 50 Wine tasting. 51 Restaurant. 52 Basketry. 53 Forge. 54 Workshop turner. 55 Manufactures of candles and fragrances. 56 Workshop potter. 57 WC 58 Botanical Garden. Thousand-year-old yew. 59 show in the garden. 60 Boutique. Tasting donuts. Sale of souvenirs. 61 Bar-Cafeteria.
The Patio

Chapel
The chapel of the eighteenth provides a framework for wedding ceremonies.
The Gardens

History, geography, arts, traditions, flora…

History
The story of Sa Granja
The origin of Sa Granja back to Roman times as abundant source was of paramount importance to the water supply.

Sa Granja also aroused great interest in the Moors who ruled Majorca tenth century to the early thirteenth century. Before the farm of Sa Granja, there was a "Alcarria" (hamlet or place with few houses), called Alpich, famous for its mills and its excellent water in this place.

In 1229, Majorca was conquered from the Moors by King D. Jaume I, once established his authority, King introduced the feudal system in the island and divided it into four parts, one of which came to the Count Don Nuño Sanz who settled in Sa Granja.

In 1239, Don Nuño Sanz donated Sa Granja to the Cistercians (order founded in 1098), so that they could establish the first convent of the island of Mallorca. Two hundred years later, the Cistercian monks joined the Monastery of Saint Bernard de Palma and they sold Sa Granja Don Mateo Vida.

The area remained for two centuries in the hands of the Vida family, then he was transferred to the Fortuny family. The current owner, Mr. Cristóbal Segui Colom and his family, was restored in 1968 and acquired in 1980.

Practical Information

Visiting hours

Visiting hours of the house and gardens from 10:00 to 19:00 in the summer, from 10:00 to 18:00 in winter.

Show dressage, traditional folk dances, and crafts on Wednesdays and Fridays from 15:00 to 16:20.

Entrance fee: 12 € (including free samples).

Phone: 00 34 971 610 032

Site on the Web: www.lagranja.net

Restaurant
At the end of the visit, the field of Sa Granja offers free tastings of local sweet wine (muscatel) and food of Mallorca, such as delicious jam filled donuts (buñuelos) of sobrassadas (dry sausage), the cheese cakes of figs… The restaurant serves a variety of traditional Majorcan dishes.