Santanyí: jewel of the south
Santanyí, with its 700-year-old city gate – Porta Murada – and bright, ochre-coloured buildings constructed with marés stone, has a lot going on. Every Saturday, it’s full of multicoloured activity with a lively market all around the Plaça Major. The town has good shopping facilities, modern galleries, restaurants, bars and the church of Sant Andreu, rising up in the middle of everything. This is quite unlike many other churches, particularly because it has an extremely special treasure inside – an organ from the baroque period with 1,104 pipes. It is considered to be one of the most important organs in Spain and one of the best-preserved baroque organs in Europe.
Real Estate Mallorca – Santanyí
Making heavenly sounds since 1765
In other words, this queen of instruments in Santanyí is a splendid and historically valuable specimen. The organ was originally situated in an abbey in Palma until it was sold to the Santanyí parish church in 1837. It was built in 1765 by the well-known Majorcan organ builder Jordi Bosch. Due to his skills, he was later called to the court of the Spanish king in Madrid. Although the beautiful organ was left to deteriorate for a long time, it has now been restored and can be admired in all its glory.
International music festival
Music is actually an important topic in this spot in the south-east of Majorca. Santanyí is proud to have its own international music festival – the Festival Internacional de Música. Tickets to the concerts are free and the musicians play at various venues.
It’s really worth having a look into EAST 26 with its Mediterranean patio (C./ del Bisbe Verger 26). This represents the completely modern Santanyí: it’s a lifestyle business, complete with creative interior design and art, a real estate agency and also a restaurant where guests are pampered with local and Asian specialities.
Live bands, theatre, wine tasting
Bar Sa Cova, close to the church of Sant Andreu, has a fairly bohemian vibe and is a meeting point for locals, foreign residents, holidaymakers, artists and musicians. There are sometimes live bands playing in a nice relaxed atmosphere and you can also see plays performed in different languages here in this “cave”.
Would you like a really nice glass of wine? Then it’s a good idea to get a few tips at the “Bodega de la Rubia” (“Bodega of the Blonde”). German expert on Majorcan wine, Eva Strunz (“the blonde”) stocks some very fine wines, particularly from the excellent, small-scale winegrowers on the island. And you can of course do some wine tasting while you’re at Eva’s bodega (C./ del Centre 5).
Beautiful bays
Although Santanyí itself is not right on the sea, the municipality has a stretch of coast approximately 35 kilometres long. This coastline includes beautiful bays such as Cala Santanyí, Cala Llombards and Caló des Moro.