Pollença, market town: Plaça Major to the Calvari steps: a self-guided walk
By Alleytale
The market town, the Roman bridge and the Calvari steps
Pollença is a market town that remembers. The walk passes the convent that became its museum, the fountain square where Joan Mas is said to have raised the alarm in 1550, a bridge called Roman that records show was already being repaired in 1403, and the Good Friday route that ties the parish church to the hill.
The stops
The Plaça Major was built between 1854 and 1857 as a gathering place for a growing town, because the old Plaça Vella had become too small, and it was laid out on the site of a cemetery. The parish church stands on it, and cafés with terraces fill the rest. On Sunday mornings the town's weekly market takes over this square and the Plaça de Ca les Monnares, with more than 300 stalls.
Photo: Josi — CC BY-SA 4.0 This square stone tower stands in a small park, the Joan March gardens, opposite the old convent church that is now the town museum. A mallorca.com listing calls it the last surviving trace of an estate of the Desbrull family, also written Brull, built in the 14th century and notable for its ogee window. A cannon in front of it is part of the group.
Photo: rene boulay — CC BY-SA 3.0 Dominican friars built this convent over the second half of the 16th century and the start of the 17th, finishing in 1616, and lived in it until the 1830s, when church property was disentailed. Today it holds concerts and plays and houses the Museu de Pollença, opened in 1975. Its collection grew out of the Salón Estival painting competition, begun in 1962, and includes Gothic altarpieces. A sand mandala in the museum was a gift to the town from the Dalai Lama, who visited in 1990.
Photo: rene boulay — CC BY-SA 3.0 The bishop of Mallorca gave Pollença's parish to the Templars, and after that order was abolished it passed to the Hospitallers, whose order kept it into the 19th century. The present building went up between 1714 and 1790, and the clock on its tower was fitted on 29 November 1844. The Virgin has been called Our Lady of the Angels since 1565, when two angels were added to her image, and on Good Friday a figure of Christ is carried down the Calvari steps to this church in a silent, torchlit procession.
Photo: Malopez 21 — CC BY-SA 4.0 According to tradition, when Dragut's corsairs landed in 1550 Joan Mas came to this square, the Plaça de l'Almoina, and cried out: "Mother of God of the Angels, help us! People of Pollença, rise, the pirates are already here!" Each year the mock battle of the August festival begins here. A cast-iron rooster, the town's heraldic animal, crowns the fountain, and a 2012 report says thieves had taken it more than once.
Photo: Kritzolina — CC BY-SA 4.0 On 31 May 1550 Ottoman corsairs under Dragut raided Pollença. In the usual account, a small band of townspeople led by Joan Mas fought the raiders at the church of Sant Jordi, where they held their loot and captives, and reinforcements from Campanet, Inca and Selva then helped send the corsairs back to their ships. Each August the town plays out the climax of that story in this square, where the Christian side defeats the pirates in the mock battle, and a church of Sant Jordi stands beside it.
Photo: Elgaard — CC BY-SA 4.0 Despite its popular name, the bridge's Roman origin has not been demonstrated. It has two unequal arches, one round and one slightly flattened, meeting on a central pier with triangular cutwaters and a small relieving arch above, and it crosses the Torrent de Sant Jordi at the entrance to the Ternelles valley. Repairs are recorded in 1403, when it was known as the Pont de Cubelles or Pont de l'Horta, and the name Roman bridge appears only in the late 19th century.
Photo: Pla — Public domain Carrer del Calvari climbs almost straight up Calvary Hill: 365 stone steps, said to stand for the days of the year, lined with cypresses and with 14 crosses for the Stations of the Cross. The municipality of Pollença says the hill first belonged to the Templars, and in 1860 Guillem Cerdà Cànaves acquired land there and made part of it available to the town for a proper approach to the chapel. The stairway was built in stages, which is why the steps in the upper, Neoclassical section are lower.
Photo: Malopez 21 — CC BY-SA 4.0 From the small chapel at the top you look back over Pollença's rooftops and the foothills of the Tramuntana to the Bay of Pollença in the distance. On Good Friday the Stations of the Cross are re-enacted on the hill, and in the ceremony called the Davallament a figure of Christ is taken down from the cross and carried down the steps to the parish church. In 1550 one of the three groups of Dragut's raiders came into the town by way of the Calvari.
Photo: Kritzolina — CC BY-SA 4.0
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