The town of Sineu in Majorca

"Baleares funda bellicosas Graeci Gymnasias dixere. Maior C Millia passuum est longitudine, circuitu vero CCCCLXXV Millia passuum. Oppida habet civium Romanorum Palmam et Pollentiam, Latina Gunium (Cinium) et Tucis (Cunici), et foederatum, Bocchorum fuit. Ab ea XXX Millia passuum, distat minor, longitudine XL Millia passuum, circuitu CL Millia passuum. Civitates habet Iamnonem, Saniseram, Magonem."

Caius Plinius, Naturalis Historiae Liber III, 77

"The Balearic warriors adept at the use of the sling, gyms were appointed by the Greeks. The large (island) has a length of 100 miles and an area of ​​475,000. The citadels of Palma and Pollença have the status of a Roman city, and Guium (Cinium) and Tucis (Cunici) have the status of a Latin city Bocchorum was a federated city. Just 30 miles away is the small (island), 40 miles long and 150 miles of perimeter. It includes the cities of Jamnon, Sanisera and Mago. "

The Roman mile measured 1,481 m.

Under the Moorish occupation, Sineu was called Yiynau and was part of the Juz of Yiynau-Bitra, which included Sineu, Lloret de Vistalegre, Sant Joan, Petra, Ariany and Vilafranca de Bonany.

The town of Sineu is adjacent to the towns Costitx, Inca, Llubí, María de la Salud Ariany, Petra, Sant Joan and Lloret de Vistalegre.

Sineu is distant 45 km from the capital, Palma de Mallorca and 38 km from the airport of Son Sant Joan. The ride is fairly simple and takes 40 minutes, take the main road Ma-15 and after passing Algaida, turn left onto Ma-3130 towards Lloret de Vistalegre and Sineu. Another route - more bucolic - is hitting the road Ma-3011, which runs through the Majorcan countryside, straight towards Sineu.

Other major towns in the interior of Majorca, near Sineu are Inca, 13 km, and Manacor, 22 km.

In 1880 and 1881 the church has undergone extensive expansion with the construction of the transept of the dome and a new bedside. In 1981, the centenary of this expansion, the Church of Our Lady of the Angels Church resumed its former name Saint Mary (església de Santa María). At the end of the twentieth century St. Mary’s church was in an advanced state of dilapidation of major restoration and consolidation took place until 2007.

The interior of the church has a single nave with five side chapels on each side. The transept is surmounted by a large dome with an octagonal base, covered by a star vault.

To the right of the church is a huge bell at seven body, connected to the church by a single span arch. The tower was rebuilt in 1549, is covered by a pyramidal roof. Its bells were restored in 2007, six of the seven bells a name based on its size or function: the largest is named Antònia the following Bàrbara, Extremaunció (Extreme Unction) Combregar (Communion), Ferris, Missa (Mass), the smaller (Petita) is part of the clock.

On St. Mark’s Square (Plaça de Sant Marc / Plaza de San Marcos) - which was once the cemetery - is the rectory next to the church of Santa María. Inside the presbytery you can see an exhibition of medieval pottery, this small museum is open on market days (Wednesdays).

Before the presbytery is a winged lion, the symbol of St. Mark the Evangelist, patron saint of the city of Sineu the lion roaring, is a badge of Sineu in his right front leg, which is a copper sculpture dating of 1945. The monument is colloquially called "the Lion" (Es Lleó / el León).

Perched on a hill in the geographical center of the island of Mallorca, the city had obvious strategic advantages for the independent kings of the fourteenth century. The city of Sineu received the title of Royal City in 1300, from 1309, King Jaume II of Mallorca there had built a royal palace that was his second official residence after Almudaina Palace in Palma de Mallorca. The Palace of the Kings of Majorca (Palau dels Reis de Mallorca / Palacio de los Reyes de Mallorca) in Sineu was built on the remains of an old Moorish palace of the eighth century.

The successor of Jaume II, King Sancho I (Sanç / Sancho), who was asthmatic, forsook Sineu for healthier air highlands Valldemossa. In 1318, King Sancho turned the palace residence of the provost de Fora (Veguer de Fora). The last king of the dynasty Majorcan, Jaume III is spent only one night in Sineu, the day before he was defeated and killed on October 25, 1349, at the Battle of Llucmajor by Peter IV of Aragon (Pere IV d’Aragó / Pedro IV de Aragon), Peter the Ceremonious.

The palace remained the seat of Veguer de Fora until 1523, the Fora (the outside), or Part Forana was part of Mallorca situated outside Palma de Mallorca (which was the Ciutat), the provost (Provost) de Fora was the judge for criminal and civil cases, so the principal officer of the royal authority, for the entire rural Majorca. It was the Golden Age of Sineu, who was at that time the capital of the rural Majorca.

In 1583, King Philip II of Spain (Felipe II) gave the building to the Order of the Immaculate Conception, the nuns turned the palace into a cloistered monastery. In the seventeenth century, the monastery was enlarged and restored, leading to the architecture that we see today, where there are still some elements typical of the fortified palace. The current set is very heterogeneous, with an ancient tower, restored in 1987, and a baroque church that houses a statue of the Immaculate Conception, a work from 1590 by Gaspar Gener.

The monastery is still inhabited by nuns Conceptionist, which are fully and strictly cloistered contemplative.

In 1835, the Fathers Minimes were driven by the policy of confiscation of Mendizábal anticlerical government, and was sold to individuals. In 1877, the monastery was acquired by the municipality to become the mayor.

The main façade has two floors with a central portal in Baroque style. In the center of the cloister you can see the well of the tank, where the badge appears Charitas. The convent building was painted tiles, religious themes, humans, animals and plants.

The market weekly, held every Wednesday in the main square in front of the Santa Maria church, in the streets nearby. The market visit Sineu is the catalog of all operators of Majorca, but even if it is more touristic the market of Sineu is very authentic.

Sineu also has its fair, also the oldest fairs in spring (fires de primavera) from the island of Majorca, and was created in 1318 by a privilege granted by King Sancho. It is also fair that attracts more visitors - tens of thousands - after Fair Good Thursday (Dijous Bo) to Inca. "Sa Fira" Sineu takes place every year on the first Sunday of May.

It is fair to predominantly agricultural and handicraft: from year to year, fruits, vegetables, plants and clothes are on the church square and Carrer Major, low chairs, ladders, stools and plants pots, pocket knives are sold in the Carrer Veguer de Fora; poultry on the terraces of the Plaça de Sant Marc, Market Square (Plaça es Mercadal) hosts livestock, farm machinery and automobiles; rides for children and vendors fill the streets and outdoor spaces.

Address: Carrer Dega Joan Rotger, 4

Phone: 00 34 971 855 075

Website: www.canjoancapo.com

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Website: www.hotelcanfont-mallorca.com