PARROQUIA DE SANT MIQUEL, SA PAGESA I SA QUARTERA.

The church

The present parish church of St. Michael (Sant Miquel), accessed by a majestic staircase from the Plaza de Sa Font de Santa Margalida, was built between the 16th and 17th centuries. On the same site, since the 13th century there had already stood several Christian buildings, consecrated to St. Mary. With the construction of the new church, however, in 1376 it was reconsecrated to St. Michael.

In 1551, under the direction of Mallorcan architects Antoni and Jordi Genovard, began the construction of the present church. In his day, Antoni Genovard was a highly recognised and successful master builder, notable for his work on the parish churches of Binissalem and that of Sant Pere in Petra, among others.

The building project follows the guidelines and the typical model of Catalan Gothic architecture: one nave, with side chapels between buttresses and a cross vault. The main façade, completed as early as 1591, also follows the Gothic tradition and features a flat, plain façade with a central rose window with latticework. Most of the façade decoration is found on the main portal, in the Renaissance style, designed by Miquel Quetglas between 1599 and 1603. It is one of the first portals in Mallorca that, like the main portal of the Mallorca Cathedral, shows the basic principle of an apse with a round-arched portal. The portal is inspired by the model of a triumphal arch: a semi-circular portal, flanked by two Ionic columns with fluted shafts and with an entablature formed by an architrave, finished with a round coffered ceiling above a tympanum. The tympanum, decorated with bas-reliefs, is one of the first examples that the Neoclassical style was introduced in Mallorcan sculpture. On the tympanum, the coat of arms of Felanitx stands out, carried by two angels. The crowning of the façade belongs already to the late baroque period and was created in 1746. It was designed in the Churrigueresque style by the Mallorcan Capuchin friar Cayetano.

In the bell tower, the "Eloi" bell from 1680 stands out, the first to be cast.

The layout of the parish church is typical of the Catalan Gothic style: a single nave with side chapels between the buttresses, seven on each side. The nave is divided into six bays and closed with a rectangular apse, created in 1867 when the architect Pere d'Alcàntara Penya modified it, because originally the apse was polygonal.

The elevation of the nave shows two levels. On the first level, the side chapels open under pointed arches, and on the second level there are the upper windows. A frieze with plant motifs separates both levels.

The bays of the central nave are each delimited by cruciform columns, which separate the different chapels. The ribs of the transverse arches, which form the ribbed vault of the entire nave, start at the capitals. The side chapels are covered with the same ribbed vaulting.

Among the chapels, the Chapel of the Rosary stands out, built between 1727 and 1730 according to the plans of the architect Juan de Aragón, who also created the high altar of the St. Francis' Church in Palma.

The sculpture of a peasant woman: Sa Pagesa

The Sa Pagesa sculpture stands next to the parish church on Nuno Sanç Street. Originally it had been located on the promenade Paseo Ramon Llull. The statue is not only a sculpture, but also a fountain, and she wears the typical costume of a peasant woman. The so-called vestit de pagès (peasant costume) or vestit a l'ample (wide garment) reflects the history and culture of Mallorca, as it evolved from the development of Mallorcan traditional costumes in the 19th and 20th centuries. This is the typical costume originally worn by the higher social classes, imitated and, in the course of time, appropriated by the common people. In addition to the traditional costume, Sa Pagesa also carries the typical water jug, as they were used in the Mallorcan villages at that time.

The Portal de Sa Quartera

Next to the Sa Pagesa sculpture there is the Sa Quartera portal, part of an earlier building, which bore the same name and had been built between 1840 and 1844 behind the parish church. When the new market hall was planned in 1933, they demolished it; only the portal was preserved and moved to its current location next to the vicarage.

The creator of this work was the Catalan master Lorenzo Rovira, who had already built the fountain of St. Margaret, and it was probably him who introduced the classicist expression in Felanitx. Sa Quartera is a lintel doorway with simple aesthetics, made of carved stones and decorated in a classicist style. The architectural structure used there consists of two Doric pilasters flanking the doorway, the entablature (decorated with a frieze of triglyphs and metopes) and the triangular pediment that finishes it off. The structure is clearly reminiscent of the neoclassical canon, which was very popular among the architects who worked in Mallorca in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the bas-relief that can be seen in the upper tympanum, the coat of arms of Felanitx stands out as a decorative element.