traveldk.com

Looking up from the old wall on the seafront, Sa Seu seems to have more in common with a craggy Mallorcan mountain than it does with any other European cathedral. It represents the might of the island’s Christian conquerors.

The seaward, Gothic façade is the most spectacular side. Rows of ornate buttresses surround an elaborate door, which was formerly called the Door of the Apostles but is now known as the Mirador (vantage point).

Although it is Gothic in overall style, the main door is mainly the product of Renaissance workmanship. A figure of Mary is surrounded by objects pertaining to her immaculate nature.

This doorway is the humblest of them all; its name refers to the distribution of alms to the poor. It was the last Gothic contribution to the building’s exterior, built in the last decade of the 15th century. The rectangular surround and the pointed arch have been finely carved, but the doorway itself has very little embellishment.

This bell is set within a three-storey-high tower surmounted with a “crown of lace” – a perforated parapet with small pinnacles. The structure is probably of Islamic origin.

Sa Seu is one of Europe’s tallest Gothic structures, and the sense of space in the interior is enhanced by graceful, elongated pillars that seem almost to melt away in the upper reaches of the nave.

A vibrant rose window at the end of the nave is the main one of seven (a few are blocked up). Some say that the 20th-century “restoration” of the window’s colours was too strong.

In 1904–14, the great Modernista architect set about improving Sa Seu’s interior, removing mediocre altars and changing the lighting effects. The controversial baldachin is actually only a mock-up – he never finished the final canopy.

In all, there are 20 chapels, though some are now part of the chancel, with their altarpieces displayed in the museum. The tombs of Jaume II and Jaume III are in the Trinity Chapel.

The collection includes some of Sa Seu’s earliest altar panels, a polychrome wood sarcophagus, ornate reliquaries and furniture. Most mind-boggling are the pair of 18th-century Baroque-style candelabra, each as tall as a person.