Faced with the Serra, dear heart, true rest you will find. —Joan Alcover i Maspons (1909) —
In 2011, the Serra de Tramuntana (Mallorca's northern mountain range) was declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO. Esporles is a municipality fully integrated in the Serra de Tramuntana and, as such, it unites all the values for which the area was granted this recognition. Esporles stands out for its rich architectural heritage, on both a large and a small scale (rural estate buildings and traditional town houses); its religious heritage (Sant Pere parish church, Santa Maria de l'Olivar church, and Maristel·la hermitage); its ethnological features (springs, lime kilns, charcoal pyres, ponds, water tanks and dry-stone walled terraces); its byways (cobbled paths, cart tracks), and its intangible heritage (legends, folktales, traditions, festivities and fairs). On top of all this, another evident attraction is its beautifully conserved, easily accessible natural heritage, thanks to a fine network of public paths and tracks.
In addition to all its many internal virtues, Esporles is also well connected with the outside world. It is the starting point for numerous different routes, linking up with the rest of the Serra Tramuntana and other inland areas, and also with the sea.
Thanks to all the above, Esporles is a superb area of the Serra de Tramuntana to visit and a perfect starting point for discovering all the rest of it.
