The town of Porreres in Majorca - Sanctuary of Monti-sion

Puig de Montesión is in the Serra de sa Mesquida is the chain of mountains of easternmost massif of Randa. Puig de Monti-sion is a low-lying hill, rising to 248 m, but with a wide circular base, which rises majestically above a cultivated plain. The hill slopes are covered with pine, carob and wild olive trees.

The Sanctuary of Monti-sion is roughly halfway between the sanctuary of Cura in Algaida and the Sanctuary of Sant Salvador in Felanitx.

Geographical coordinates: 39° 29’ 45.34" N, 3° 0’ 59.76" E

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the entire sanctuary undergoes transformations. In 1858, following the policy of confiscation (desamortització), the sanctuary and the 53 acres of surrounding land were confiscated by the state.

From 1887 to 1893, the future bishop of Palma, Pere Joan Campins i Barceló (Palma, 1859-1915) was the pastor of Porreres. During the six years he will spend in Porreres, Pere Campins undertook a major restoration of the sanctuary of Monti-sion, in 1892, a new altar was built in the chapel. Pere Campins was bishop of Palma from 1898 until his death in 1915. The main avenue of the city Porreres bears his name in his honor (Avingida del Bisbe Campins). The current appearance of the sanctuary date of restoration of 1892.

On each side of the road were seven pairs of Gothic columns, built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, symbolizing the Seven Sorrows and the Seven Joys of Mary, only five have been preserved, but in poor condition. These octagonal columns, sandstone Mallorca (marès), are surmounted by an octagonal tent and a medallion depicting a joy or pain of the Virgin. The roadside there are also small crosses a Way of the Cross (Via Crucis), the eighteenth century, which ends at the sanctuary.

From the terrace a wide staircase leads to the entrance of the sanctuary door. This door with segmental arch opens onto a porch, covered with a barrel vault, which gives access to the gallery of the cloister by a semicircular door, above the second door is a niche with a statue of Our Lady of Monti-sion.

The front of the chapel has a door lintel and in the upper part, a rose and three stone arches, the top of the facade is a bell wall.

The interior has a single nave with two sections and a raised heart three steps and two chapels on each side. Each section of nave is covered by a ceiling vault supported on consoles, the two sections are separated by pointed arches.

A neo-Gothic altar, part of a round arch above the altar, contains the image of the Virgin of Monti-sion, it is a Majorcan marble statue dating from the late fifteenth century or early sixteenth century. Mare de Déu de Monti-sion carries the Child Jesus on her left side - unlike the usual - and a bird in his right hand. At his feet we can see a badge, perhaps that of the wealthy family Dusai of Porreres, who was one of the two patrons families sanctuary.

One of the four side chapels contains an altarpiece of the eighteenth century representing Saints Cosmas, patron of surgeons, and his brother Damien, patron of pharmacists saints are painted in Arabic costume inspiration, as befits their origins, and accompanied instruments beheading (the saints Cosmas and Damian were beheaded during the anti-Christian persecutions of Diocletian). This altarpiece was offered by the brotherhood of barbers, surgeons precursors.

On the left is the sacristy which keeps another Mother of God (XV-XVI century), attributed to Gabriel Móger and votive offerings or promises to the Virgin Mary.

In the center of the patio is a well hexagonal rim and porch with wrought iron that allowed wells to tap rainwater collected in a cistern. Another well is located on the southwest side of the sanctuary, near the entrance.

In 1694 was built a large study room, this "Living Grammar" is located on the northwest side of the cloister. The entrance to the hall is a door lintel above the lintel are the arms of Porreres (a palm tree with two swallows), and on the sides, a bas-relief carved on the left of an inkwell at right of a notebook, with the Latin inscription: "Dilicit Diis portas Sion dil. Diis portas studiosorum". The classroom is a large rectangular nave which could accommodate one hundred students and is covered with a barrel vault with three arches supported on smooth pilasters, and stone benches attached to the walls. On the roof of the room Grammar is a sundial.

On the evening of November 25 was celebrated the feast of St. Catherine, the patron saint of students: the night was lit a huge bonfire, which met another fire ignited by students of the Cura sanctuary.

The school reached its zenith in the seventeenth century, it was closed in 1835 under the anticlerical government Mendizábal and policies confiscation of the Catholic Church ("desamortización", disamortization).

"There are twelve rooms for students, separated by partitions, and a small kitchen, a bathroom and a closet, above the room, there is a space to store the wood up to eight students sleeping in each room. The remaining units are used for teachers and servants, with a total of twenty rooms. "

Reservation phone number: 00 34 971 647 185