About Beaches

Beaches in Porto Colom and Felanitx

Cala Marçal: this beach, which is 90 m long and 150 m wide, has fine white sand; it is located in the residential area of Porto Colom and is surrounded by low cliffs. There is ample parking at the back, and the beach is well signposted.
Services: restaurants; sun loungers, pedal boats and parasols for hire.
Es Babó: this narrow beach, which is 135 m long, has medium-grain golden sand, with some rocks. At the back of the beach there is a narrow road that goes to the lighthouse of Es Far, where there are some low buildings.
S'Arenal Gran de Porto Colom: this beach can be reached by following the road that leads to the lighthouse of Es Far, after passing the beach of Es Babó. It's 75 m long and 40 m wide, and is very well protected from the wind; the water is calm and there are some tamarinds on the beach. At the back of the beach there is ample parking space.
Services: restaurant; WC; sun loungers and parasols for hire.
S'Arenal Petit de Porto Colom: this is the last beach within the natural bay of Porto Colom and is very close to the beach of S'Arenal Gran de Porto Colom; it's 18 m long and 25 m wide and can be reached by going towards the lighthouse. There is a bar with a terrace which offers a wide variety of drinks and dishes.
Cala Mitjana: this beautiful beach, which is protected from the wind by low cliffs, is 28 m long and 15 m wide, with fine white sand. It's surrounded by pine trees located on a private property and there are some luxurious buildings in the zone. To get here you have to walk south along the coast from Cala Sa Nau.
Cala Sa Nau: this unspoilt beach, which is 35 m long and 60 m wide, is surrounded by a pine grove. It is easily reached by car, as it is well signposted from the village of S'Horta, from which it is only 2.5 km. Its easy access means that it can get crowded, especially during summer weekends.
Services: open-air restaurant; WC; sun loungers and parasols for hire.
Cala Brafí: this quiet unspoilt beach is 30 m long and 45 wide. You can reach this beach on foot by walking about 2 km north from Cala Sa Nau. If you prefer to walk a shorter distance, there is a 300 m path which begins outside the residential area of Porto Colom, around the beach of Cala Marçal; at the end of this stretch of beach, towards the south there is a path that goes in between the walls. At the end of the path you have to jump over part of a traditional Majorcan wall, from which point the path deteriorates until it reaches the beach.

About Local Attrcations

The municipal district of Felanitx covers an area of 169.57 km2 and has a population of over 15,000. It is located in the south east of Mallorca and its 15 km coastline contains several beaches, which are one of the main tourist attractions in this area. Outside the towns there are many rural houses, which form part of the area's architectural heritage; some of these houses have been restored and form part of Mallorca's range of rural tourism establishments, either as rural properties within the agrotourism sector or as rural hotels.
There is documented evidence that 15 houses existed in Felanitx around 1260, and these formed the original village, probably around the square of Font de Santa Margalida, where there is a water fountain, as a garden area was irrigated during the Moorish period. In front of this square, to the left, climbing the steps up to the Parish Church of Sant Miquel, is the small Church of Santa Maria, which dates from the 13th or 14th century, with reminiscences of Romanesque art that are typical of the early-Gothic period. The aforementioned parish church is a Gothic building from the 16th century, with a single nave covered with a cross-vault roof and lateral chapels. Above the main door is an image of Sant Jordi (Saint George), with Saint Peter and Saint Paul at either side of him, and inside there is an important series of altarpieces of great artistic value. The Convent of Sant Agustí, founded in 1603, is a Baroque-style building with a simple and austere façade. The other convent is that of La Providència, on the street of Carrer Julivert, and its appearance is the result of a thorough transformation carried out at the beginning of the 20th century. On Carrer del Call we find the steps that climb up to El Calvari (the Calvary), with the stations of the cross and a small oratory with a simple chapel, which was constructed in the mid-19th century, following the style of the Calvary of Pollensa, which was the hometown of the religious man behind the building of this structure.
As early as the 19th century Felanitx was an industrial town, specialising in the production of liquor and wine, and there are many notable houses in the town which are a testimony to the prosperity that industry brought with it. The town's industrial activity is now strongly linked to construction, though there are also companies which operate in food processing and sausage-meat production. With regard to wine, the zone is within the Denomination of Origin of Pla i Llevant de Mallorca, with some bodegas which produce high-quality wines.
Cas Concos des Cavaller is a hamlet with less than 500 residents; its origins go back to the estate of the Obrador Conco family in the 16th century, which is where the name of Cas Concos comes from. However, it was in the 19th century when most growth took place. There were various oratories at the spot where the current church stands, which was constructed at the beginning of the 20th century in the style of the old western Christian basilicas.
S'Horta is a small village with less than 1,000 residents. Despite the abundance of water in the subsoil, leading to horticultural land use as far back as Moorish times, it seems to have been the expansion of viticultural crops, especially in the second half of the 18th century, which brought about the growth of the village. The most outstanding building in this village, which is located near Calonge and Cala D´or, is the Church of Sant Isidre.
Es Carritxó is a circle of houses surrounding the Church of Sant Antoni.
Sanctuary of la Mare de Déu de Sant Salvador
The Sanctuary of la Mare de Déu de Sant Salvador is located at the top of the hill of Puig de Sant Salvador, with road access from a turn-off on the right of the PM-401 road which runs from Felanitx to Porto Colom. The hill forms part of the range of the Serralada de Llevant; it is 494 metres high and affords great views over inland Mallorca and over the south-east coast, with it being possible to view theNatural Parh Archipielag of Cabrera, to the south of the island, on clear days.
The first documented references to the sanctuary date from 1348, stating that it was constructed under the name of Sant Salvador. It has been indicated that the reason behind its construction was the Black Plague which swept Europe at this time and which caused 900 deaths in Felanitx. The modern name is La Mare de Déu (Mother of God), who is highly venerated here and represented by a stone sculpture from the 15th century. Proof of this veneration is provided by a room full of objects offered to La Mare de Déu in fulfilment of a promise; the room is accessed from the courtyard in front of the church, which is a construction from the beginning of the 18th century. On the ascent up the road there is a small chapel with a sculpture representing the popular tradition of La Mare de Déu encountered by a shepherd. Inside the church there is an altarpiece of the Passion, sculpted in Santanyí stone during the first half of the 15th century. The sanctuary complex, comprising the hospice and the church, has had various uses over time: in the 16th century there was a school teaching grammar here, during the 17th century it served as a watchtower to guard against attacks by pirates from North Africa, and it was looked after by the hermits of the congregation of Sant Pau and Sant Antoni until 1992. It is currently run by some lay brothers and sisters and there is a restaurant and café here.
On the same hill, before reaching the peak, is the cross of Creu des Picot, and in front of the sanctuary is a monument to Crist Rei (Christ the King), which is a 7-metre-high copper sculpture placed on top of a 37-metre-high structure. Both monuments were built during the first half of the 20th century.