The parish church of Mare de Déu dels Angels was founded in 1236, but only four years later it was handed to the Knights Templar, who had been granted swathes of land in northern Mallorca by King Jaime I of Aragon in recognition of the help they gave him during the Conquest of Mallorca in 1229. It was around this church that Pollença began to expand, eventually ending the thirteenth century as one of the main towns on the island.
After the Order of the Knights Templar was dissolved in 1312, all its properties, including this church, were ceded to the Order of the Knights Hospitallers, later known as the Order of Malta, remaining in their hands until 1836. However, the only trace of its original appearance is the base of the bell tower, construction of which began in 1470, although it didn't reach its current height until 1921.
The building as it is today was constructed between 1714 and 1790. It is a basilica floor plan church with vaulted side chapels. Inside you can see several valuable works of art, such as the Baroque altarpiece on the high altar dedicated to Mare de Déu dels Angels - created between 1752 and 1764 by Mallorcan sculptor Joan Pere Obrador - and fourteen large canvases depicting the Stations of the Cross.
The Knights Templar were the first owners of El Calvario, which today hosts one of the most impressive traditions of Mallorca’s Easter Week celebrations. El Calvario not only offers superb views of Pollença, but is also one of the town's most iconic locations thanks to its impressive stairway. It consists of 365 steps, one for each day of the year, and is flanked by cypress trees and fourteen three-metre-high crosses, evoking the ordeal that Jesus Christ suffered on the way to his crucifixion on Mount Golgotha.
On Good Friday the Calvario steps are the setting for the 'Davallament' (Removal from the Cross), one of the most important events of Mallorca's Easter Week celebrations, where a valuable carving of Christ is removed from the cross and solemnly paraded down the steps to the Church of Virgen de los Ángeles (patron saint of Pollença). The entire ritual is performed in complete silence and lit only by the torches carried by members of the different brotherhoods.
The Museum of Pollença is located in the old cloister of the Dominicans and it was built between 1588 and 1616; the Dominican friars were there until 1836.
The name of Pollença is linked to the world of painting from the first years of the XXth century, when artists like Anglada Camarasa, Tito Citadini, arrived from Paris and its international renown attracted other artists like Sobre Joaquim Mir and José de Creeft. The influence of these artists was materialized in the sixties with the creation of the Summer Exhibition of Painting, nowadays International Competition of Plastic Arts that, with 34 editions, has constituted the content of Pollença's Museum.
The Museum of Pollença was officially founded in 1975. In its halls were exhibited the works which won that Exhibition and a group of gothic altarpieces. With time the painting collection has increased and the contents have been enriched with works of archeologic character, a Buddhist mandala and Atilio Boveri's collection.
“It’s Time to Open the Black Boxes!” by Danae Stratou is the current exhibition at the Museum of Pollença in the Iglesia del Convento de Santo Domingo. The show invites the public to contribute a single word — a word that threatens us, or a word that we desperately hope to protect. In the show, we open the ‘Black Boxes,’ revealing our collective vocabulary and bringing to light our collective fears and hopes. The project investigates the space between art, democracy and political action by focusing on how society responds directly — without parliamentary mediation — to issues that affect it.
The convent was built by Dominican Friars between 1558 and 1616 in order to bolster their presence in Pollença, having initially settled in the Oratorio del Roser Vell. The Dominicans occupied the church and the convent until 1833, when the site was disentailed, and a few years later the Spanish government ceded it to Pollença Town Council. Since then it has had many uses, including as a hospice, Guardia Civil barracks, a school and a museum.
The church of the convent has a basilica floor plan and ten side chapels, each adorned with a period altarpiece. The most striking example was created between 1651 and 1662 by Mallorcan sculptor Joan Antoni Oms and is dedicated to the Virgen del Rosario, patron saint of the Dominicans. The painting dates back to the fifteenth century and comes from the Oratorio del Roser Vell, which can also be visited in Pollença.
Next to the church is the pièce de résistance of this building: a Baroque-style cloister which was completed in 1616. Well known for the beauty of its four arched corridors, it has also been the venue for the Pollença Classical Music Festival since 1962. This event, created by the famous British violinist Philip Newman and held annually in July and August, regularly attracts eminent figures such as the soprano Montserrat Caballé, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and the Orchestre National de France with Lorin Maazel as conductor.
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Philip Newman - El Cant dels ocells.
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