Santa Margarita Parish · Military Archdiocese
The parish
Carrer de Sant Miquel, 69 · Palma
Nearly eight hundred years
A Gothic church in the heart of Palma
Among the streets of the historic centre, the church of Santa Margarita preserves one of the oldest Gothic façades in the city: sturdy buttresses, a ribbed apse and a nave that has seen friars, nuns, wounded soldiers and, today, the Armed Forces community in Mallorca pass through it.
It was a convent before a parish, a military hospital before a monument, and it remains, above all, a place of worship open to everyone.
A church that has changed communities several times over the centuries, yet has never stopped being a place of encounter and faith.
Timeline
From convent to military parish
From the donation of an orchard beside a mosque to today's military parish: a timeline of the moments that shaped this church.
· Foundation
James I of Aragon grants an orchard beside a former mosque for a religious community to settle there, three years after the Christian conquest of the city.
· First friars
A community of Franciscan friars settles there, later handing the convent over to a community of Augustinian nuns — who gave the church the name by which it has been known ever since.
· Gothic renovation
The most important renovation of the medieval church completely rebuilds its apse, with the ribbed vault it still has today.
· Secularisation
As part of the 19th-century confiscations, the religious community leaves the convent, which is demolished; its grounds become a military hospital. The church, however, remains standing.
· National Monument
It is declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument, the protection status equivalent to today's Cultural Heritage designation.
· Military parish
After its restoration, it is dedicated as a military parish, linked ever since to the life of the Armed Forces in Mallorca.
Today
A living community
Today the parish hosts the usual schedule of Masses and celebrations, the chaplain's pastoral work, and the life of the groups and brotherhoods linked to Santa Margarita.
Learn more
Keep discovering Santa Margarita
Meet the current chaplain, discover the groups linked to the parish, or request one of its spaces for your activity.