Iglesia de Sant Joan

Religious | Sant Joan

The first news of a chapel in Sant Joan date from 1249, with the name of Sant Joan de Sineu, located in the current sanctuary of Consolació. In 1298 Bishop Ponç de Jardí erected the chapel as a parish. With the consolidation of the urban nucleus from the foundation of the town of Sant Joan, together with the discomfort of climbing the hill where the temple was located, motivated the construction of a new temple in the current location. This second church was under construction in 1541 and in 1597 the bell tower was erected. Between 1645 and 1700 the temple was enlarged with the addition of new sections, and between 1768 and 1788 the roof was rebuilt in the form of a barrel vault. Of this temple remain the Gospel chapels (left), and the façade and lateral portals, as well as part of the bell tower. In 1927, the construction of the present temple began. Work began on the right side, next to the fossar vell, and a year later the Epistle chapels were finished. The new presbytery was begun in 1931, and the following year the sculptor Bartomeu Amorós made the coffered ceiling. In 1935 the structure of the building was finished and the interior in 1939, the year in which the new church was blessed. The coffered ceiling, basically worked by Joan Ginard, was not finished until 1976, while the portal, worked by the master Llabrés and with sculpture by Tomàs Vila, was finished in 1944. The façade has a neo-baroque main portal, a skylight and the headwall, formed by a mixtilinear crowning. The doorway is linteled, with molding, inscribed in a semicircular arch and jambs in the form of Corinthian pilasters, with pyramids with a ball on them. The tympanum houses an image of the patron saint, Saint John, in an attitude of announcing the arrival of the Savior, work of the sculptor Tomàs Vila, from 1944. To the left of the façade is the bell tower, with a square section and seven stories (the sixth and seventh have two openings with pointed arches on each side). The crowning is a pyramidal top, in neo-Gothic style, from 1865. The lateral doorway is one of the oldest elements of the church, since it is a Gothic doorway, from the 16th century, with an ogival arch, with a pointed architrave and two archivolts, and a pointed archivolt; the tympanum is unornamented. On the right, next to the bell tower, a simple monolith commemorates the missionary Fra Lluís Jaume. The interior, in classical style, has a floor plan with three naves, six side chapels and a flat roof with a wooden coffered ceiling, the work of Joan Ginard. The naves are separated by two rows of quadrangular section pillars, joined by semicircular arches. Over the lateral naves there is a gallery with balustrade that surrounds the nave, with statues of the apostles. The presbytery has a barrel vault and has three mural paintings by Pere Barceló, blessed in 1948; they represent the birth, preaching and martyrdom of the Precursor of the Messiah. The large painting of the upper body represents the glorification of Sant Joan, with the coats of arms of the Verí, the Verger and another surname of the town. The lateral chapels of the left or of the Gospel are: the first, under the tribune, houses the portal of the bell tower; that of the Heart of Jesus; the side portal, called the men, with the organ above it, built between 1873 and 1901; that of the Ànimes; that of the Name of Jesus, which houses the Baroque altarpiece (1671), by Pere Joan Pinya, of three streets, the central one with the relief of the Circumcision; and that of Sant Josep, with a Baroque altarpiece of three streets, the central one occupied by an image of the patron saint. Between this chapel and the presbytery is the altar of the Blood of Christ. The chapels on the right or Epistle are: the chapel of the Virgin of Lourdes; the chapel of Sant Antoni; the chapel of Santa Catalina Tomàs; the chapel of the Purísima; the chapel of the Roser; the chapel of the Virgin of Carmen. The apse chapel of the Epistle is that of the Tabernacle; between it and the presbytery, there is the image of Sant Joan Baptista, possibly brought from La Seu in 1541. To the left of the presbytery is the sacristy, of irregular pentagonal plan, with a balcony that looks to the exterior. Inside there is a painting by Fra Lluís Jaume. The parish museum, located in the upper gallery, contains, among other elements, an Assumption, from the early 16th century, attributed to Gabriel Mòger, and the Baroque reliquary of the Virgin of Consolation, made in 1804.