SANCTUARY OF OUR LADY OF MONTI-SION
The original date of construction of the monastery is unknown. It seems, however, that the building of the chapel (patrons of which were the families Dusai and Mesquida, as well as many other Porrerencs) may have begun at the end of the 15th Century.
Besides the Marian cloister, the summit of Monti-Sion housed a humanities school starting in the early 16th Century, where Latin grammar was taught with the goal of training students for their enrolment in the Estudi General Lul·lià school, subsequently Universitat Literària. The school was closed in 1835 due to political changes in the new liberal state.
The Monti-Sion sanctuary stands at an altitude of 245m. Access to the central courtyard is via a broad staircase leading up to the cloisters, with an irregular pentagonal layout surrounded by roman arches; at its centre there is a hexagonal-opening well with a stone basin.
The church’s frontage has a rose window with 3 arched windows above. Their entirety is crowned with a tower. The inside features a single nave with two side-chapels, the ceiling is cross-vaulted and stands on corbels.
In the late 15th Century a series of crosses were placed along the path leading up to Monti-sion, representing each of the Holy Mary’s Seven Joys and Seven Sorrows. Another highlight is the monumental viacrucis set made up of 14 stations of the cross (crosses or pictures) from the 18th Century.
