Cova de la Mare de Déu

An old marès quarry cut into the rock, a short walk from Portals Vells cove, with three large openings facing the sea. Inside the walls you can still make out the remains of a chapel, a carved altar, coats of arms and quarrymen's marks; the stone is said to have gone into buildings such as Palma Cathedral. Tradition says Genoese sailors, saved from a storm around 1450, left an image of the Virgin here, and it became a place of devotion for fishermen and seafarers. Today it feels like a ceremonial cave hidden in the middle of the woods, but what you are looking at is mining history and religious history at once. There is no ticket office and no opening hours: it is a place to look at slowly and with respect.

Reviewed in November 2026