Church of Sant Joan de Malta

Religious | Palma de Mallorca

The knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem or Knights Hospitaller did not take part in the conquest of Mallorca in 1229, but they were awarded properties in the low part of the town, in the area around what would be La Lonja de los Mercaderes centuries later. The built the curia of the order and a church dedicated to Saint John. The church of Sant Joan de la Mar – now Sant Joan de Malta – is the result of numerous restructuring interventions that wiped out every trace of the original construction. The only medieval vestige that remains is the figure of the patron saint, a beautiful Gothic sculpture that was displayed in the tympanum of the main portal and which was moved inside the church because it began to deteriorate rapidly. The present church, classicist Baroque in style with scant ornamentation, is small in size. Above the doorway there is a rose window and further up, a pediment with a Maltese cross inscribed inside a circle. The doorway has an arch of triumph with a frieze bearing an inscription interrupted by a relief shaped like a scallop with the Maltese cross on it. The interior layout is rectangular with a single nave and chapels that are also rectangular in shape. The main altarpiece is presided over by an image of Saint John the Baptist. The first chapel on the left houses the image of the ‘Santo Cristo de los Boteros’, and the first one on the right contains that of San Cayetano (St. Cajetan).