Discover our municipality parish by parish

Don’t pass our villages by. Each one has its own personality. Some little spot that you always go back to on your trips to Ibiza. A place that calls you back… picturesque restaurants, bars with history, open-air markets, and the charming Ibicenco churches that await you in Sant Carles de Peralta, Santa Gertrudis de Fruitera, Jesús, Es Puig d’en Valls and Santa Eulària des Riu, the administrative seat. Which one will become your favourite?

Any time is a good time to stop at one of the villages in our municipality – perhaps to go for a stroll before or after the beach, to get some refreshment after a cultural visit, or after finishing a hiking or cycling route, to have dinner on a summer’s night… Our villages are not just there to visit, they’re there to enjoy. Why not try our Cultural Route – which can be done by car, motorbike or bicycle –, and explore them all in one or two days, as you prefer. Make them part of your holiday and fall in love with their Mediterranean charm.

A modest church, the priest’s quarters, a grocery shop that often does duty as a post office and bar… and that’s about it. Until a few decades ago, this is what the parishes of Sant Carles, Santa Gertrudis, Jesús and Puig d’en Valls were like, all of them located in the municipality of Santa Eulària des Riu. These hubs did not emerge in answer to the needs of the Ibicenco farmer, who was always self-sufficient, but rather as a necessary means so that the Catholic Church could reach the country dwellers through Sunday Mass and other religious services. If you stop to look at Ibiza’s hinterland, you will see that its farmhouses and corresponding acreage are dispersed, with not many neighbours in between.

The parishes ended up becoming centres of social life for yesterday’s farmers, who combined churchgoing with the opportunity to see friends and family, to arrange betrothals, and to catch up on local gossip. It is for this reason that the villages in the municipality are so small, with the exception of Santa Eulària itself, which developed a town centre of a certain relevance because it was one of Ibiza’s administrative centres.