CHURCH OF SAN ANTONIO ABAD

PARISH OF SANT ANTONI DE PORTMANY

Last August 24th , San Bartolome's festivity, copatrón of Portmany's Sant Antoni, inaugurated the new major altar of the church. It is not an inauguration anyone, but a restoration of the same altar that was at the beginning of 20th century in this church and that thanks to a linen of the year 1913 it could have recovered as is it was. This major altar stayed with free chunks distributed in the whole church maybe immediately after that in 1.936 in the civil war, some tried to burn the church sew that was avoided by the intervention of the mayor of this epoch. Today thanks to the current parson we have recovered a part of history of this locality. At the new altar near to San Antonio titular of the parish, we find Saint Vincents Ferrer´s image, at one side Saint Joseph and Maria Magdalena (The Magdalena is an image that repeats itself very much in this church and it was a festivity that was celebrated in a solemn way in this locality) and to another side Saint John and Saint Peters are (who into this altar changes the keys into the cross).

The church of San Antonio constructed itself in the 14th century as church and fortress. It was a refuge of all the inhabitants in the cases of pirate attacks and other threats. Sample of this is the attached tower, which is the only one tower of defense squared in the island and the lack of windows in the former fortress. In the tower two cannons existed to muffle the foreign threats, the doors of the fortress were of iron in order that they could not burn and if the enemy was approaching very much the inhabitants were throwing boiling oil to the enemy from the belfry.

Today already calmer than those days, the use of this building is of religious worship. Proof of it is that as any good from Ibiza church it has a Calvary, set of three crosses that exists in all the churches of the island.

As all the churches from Ibiza it has it´s "porxo" or porch, though not in the principal entry but in the one that leads to the sacristy.

The church of San Antonio is an authentic museum. Of incalculable value it is this angel of white marble that holds a washbowl where the holy water is, and that curiously also appears in the before mentioned linen of 1.913.



The most ancient image is this of Saint Agnes. An image worth being in any museum of ancient works. I ask myself if it will not be the famous image of the ship in danger that arrived at Sant Antoni's port on August 24th and that they made like the crew members promised during the danger that in the church of the port where they should come healthy and safe, and that it gave place to the origin of San Bartolomé's festivity.

This altarpiece was in the major altar before the "new" recently inaugurated altar. A great linen with the figures of Saint John, Saint Anthony and Maria Magdalena (as i said before an image that repeats herself very much in this church).

A great picture of San Francisco Javier is placed in the back part of the temple. Close to the windows that represent the patrons of the villa. A picture of big dimensions and with very much historical value. This church is like a museum of big pictures and some sculptures.

The Patron is the hermit San Antonio Abad, who was a hermit in Egypt. He is represented by a pork on his feet and in this image (we do not see it for being on his feet) the pork is black. A curiosity since in Ibiza and specially in Formentera some decades ago the porks that were growing up were black. Below we see a window in the backside part of the temple.