Santa Eulalia Ibiza

Tourism Santa Eulària des Riu

  • Suggestions
    • Beaches
    • Sports
    • Routes and Excursions
    • Hotels with charm
    • Gastronomy
    • Culture and Heritage
    • Events and Performances
    • Markets and Shops
  • About Santa Eulària
    • Practical Information
    • How to Get There
    • How to Get Around
    • Where to Sleep
    • Local History
    • Towns and Villages
    • Legends and traditions
    • Downloads
  • Sustainable Santa Eulària
  • Winter
  • Families
  • Shows
  • Things to do
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
EN
  • ES
Gatzara Well Pin it!

Gatzara Well

Our next stop marks the geographic centre of the island. Here, just one kilometre outside the Santa Gertrudis town centre, we find Gatzara Well, one of the many wells that dot the Ibicenco countryside and coastline.

The Gatzara well is known to have existed in the 17th century because it is referenced in surviving documents in connexion with the dances that farm folk used to hold here in honour of Saint James, whose feast day is 25th July.

The word gatzara in Catalan means “uproar”, “racket”, “bedlam” – in short, the pandemonium that ensues when a group of people come together to celebrate a happy occasion. The name may also have been acquired because Gatzara Well was an important meeting point for farming families, who lived widely scattered across the countryside. For this reason, a trip to the well entailed much more than just going to fetch water: it meant seeing neighbours, exchanging gossip, catching up with friends, etc. Today, the well’s defining quality is silence, though it is not hard to imagine days gone by when, in addition to water, it supplied social cohesion and moments of joy.

Curiosities
In its earliest days, the door of the well faced the road that runs alongside it. Later, the door was repositioned to face away from the road. Superstition was the driving factor behind this change in that funeral processions used to travel along the same road en route to the cemetery.

 

 

Santa Eulària des Riu

How to get around

Where to sleep

MICE Destination

Conferences, conventions, corporative events and incentive trips

Santa Eulalia Ibiza

Tourism Santa Eulària des Riu
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Suggestions
    • Beaches
    • Sports
    • Routes and Excursions
    • Hotels with charm
    • Gastronomy
    • Culture and Heritage
    • Events and Performances
    • Markets and Shops
  • About Santa Eulària
    • Practical Information
    • How to Get There
    • How to Get Around
    • Where to Sleep
    • Local History
    • Towns and Villages
    • Legends and traditions
    • Downloads
  • Sustainable Santa Eulària
  • Winter
  • Families
  • Shows
  • Things to do
  • MICE
  • PROFESIONALS AND PRESS
  • Town Hall
  • Legal Notice
  • Contact
Ajuntament de Santa Eulària des Riu
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.