Santa Eulària des Riu (, es, Santa Eulalia del Río) is a coastal town on the south eastern coast of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

island of

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its l ...

. The town is located on the designated road PM 810."579 Regional Map, Spain, Islas Baleares." Pub:Michelin Editions des Voyages, 2004, Santa Eulària is the third largest town on the island and also has the only river on the island which flows into the sea at the western end of the town.

Location

The town is northeast of

Ibiza Town Ibiza (; officially in Catalan: Eivissa ) is a city and municipality located on the southeast coast of the island of Ibiza in the Balearic Islands autonomous community. Overview Although called Ibiza in English and Spanish, the official name ...

and of

Ibiza Airport Ibiza Airport ( ca, Aeroport d'Eivissa, es, Aeropuerto de Ibiza) is the international airport serving the Balearic Islands of Ibiza and Formentera in Spain located southwest of Ibiza Town. In 2020, the airport handled 2.1 million passeng ...

. The town sits next to a wide bay with the promontory of Punta Arabí at the east end of the Bay. Also at the eastern end of the bay is new marina called Port Esportiu which is full of restaurants, shops and bars. The town has two beaches which are kept clean and tidy''The Rough Guide to Ibiza & Formentera''. Rough Guides, Penguin Group, 2003; and have gently sloping sands and are ideal for young families. At the western end of the bay is the prominent hill of 'Puig d’ en Fita', which dominates the landscape. The hill is dotted with apartments, hotels and private houses, and at night is dotted with the dwellings lights.

The Town

At the centre of the town on the ‘Plaça d’Espanya’ is the Ajuntament (town hall) which is now one of the last historical buildings of the town. The present building, which has been renovated, dates from 1795 and reflects the typical architecture of the period on the island. Nowadays the building is less functional as a town hall and is used with a civic representative purpose. In front of the Ajuntament is a small square which has a fountain with a stone surround which faces the busy main street of 'Carrer Saint Jaume'. Behind the fountain is a stone monument, erected by the city of Palma,

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

to thank and honour the local fishermen who, on 17 January 1913, rescued victims of the shipwrecked steamboat ‘Mallorca’ which had run aground on a reef near the rocky inlet of Redona at Punta Arabí. The town streets run grid like from the 'Plaça d’Espanya' with the 'Carrer Saint Jaume' running west to east. The 'Carrer da Sant Vincent' runs parallel, one street back from ‘Carrer Saint Jaume’ with the western end of ‘Plaça d’Espanya’. This street is pedestrianized and is filled with tavernas and restaurants.Everyman MapGuide to Ibiza & Formentera. Pub:Alfred A Knopf, New York, 2004; The 'Passeig de s’Alamera' is an attractive thoroughfare which runs south from the 'Plaça d’Espanya' down to the seafront. This boulevard has a tree lined central pedestrianized area with gardens. In the summer this shady "Ramblas" is lined with market stalls selling jewellery,

sarong A sarong or sarung () is a large tube or length of fabric, often wrapped around the waist, worn in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Western Asia, Northern Africa, East Africa, West Africa, and on many Pacific islands. The fabric often has woven plaid o ...

s, tie-dye

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garb and trinkets of all kinds. At the southern end of 'Passeig de s’Alamera' is Santa Eulalia's harbour front with views of the bay.

The River

The river is called Riu de Santa Eulalia, it is more of a small stream and only ever becomes a raging torrent following very heavy rainfall. The source of the river is below the 342-metre-high Puig d’en Sopes close to Sant Miquel. The river then meanders for through the countryside to the sea at the western end of the town. A small way inland from the mouth of the river there is a small triple arched bridge, the Pont Vell, the bridge crosses the rocky valley and is claimed to have been built by the Romans as part of the imperial road building schemes on the island between 200 BC and AD 400, although the bridge's earliest mention is in a document of 1720. The river is also the only one of its kind in the Balearic Islands, and is fed by several small tributaries, notably the Torrent de Labritja, which originates at the northern village of Sant Joan de Labritja.Ibiza & Formentera’s Heritage, A Non-clubber’s Guide. Author: Paul R Davis Pub:Barbary Press, 2009,

The Parish Church of Santa Eulària

To the west of the town centre is the hill called ‘Puig de Missa’. The hill is 52 metres above sea level and its summit is dominated by the Església de Puig de Missa. The church is dedicated to Saint Eulalia. The Path to the church spirals up around the hillside before arriving in a courtyard beside the church come Fortress. The Church is thought to have been built in 1568, although it is recorded that there was a chapel dedicated to the saint as far back as 1302. Despite the huge natural advantage of constructing the church on this hilltop, the small community of Santa Eulària, employed the skills of military designer Giovanni Calvi to fortify the church you see here today. Calvi had a rounded

bastion A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...

constructed in the style of the islands many watchtower although the church's bastion is solid and has no internal guardrooms. The church's nave roof is higher than the Bastion which restricted the range and scope of any cannon placed on the bastion, although it is thought that at one time the roof may have been lower than the bastion. The Porch of the church, added in the eighteenth century, is larger than most on the island and stands separate from the main church building. It has multiple pillars and rounded arches which has been compared to the

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

style of architecture, and this does compare well with a mosque and its prayer halls still seen on main land Spain. The porch is probably the newest part of this church. On the west elevation of the church there is a small chapel which is topped with a plain stone dome complete with a lantern. This chapel is an addition to the original church, and is entered through a ponderous arch bored through the massively thick walls. The interior is square and rather small with the dome above supported on squat arches over each corner. The lantern above has stained glass lights. There is another similar

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

on the opposite wall which gives the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

a footprint in the shape of the

crucifix A crucifix (from Latin ''cruci fixus'' meaning "(one) fixed to a cross") is a cross with an image of Jesus on it, as distinct from a bare cross. The representation of Jesus himself on the cross is referred to in English as the ''corpus'' (Lati ...

. There is a

gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting o ...

which was brought and installed from

Segovia Segovia ( , , ) is a city in the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the Province of Segovia. Segovia is in the Inner Plateau (''Meseta central''), near the northern slopes of th ...

in 1967. The rest of the church is sparse and has been heavily restored due to the extreme damage done to the church during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...

Popular culture

The town was depicted, in the time before and up to the outbreak of the

, in

Elliot Paul Elliot Harold Paul (February 10, 1891 – April 7, 1958) was an American journalist and writer. Biography Paul was born in Linden, a part of Malden, Massachusetts, the son of Harold Henry Paul and Lucy Greenleaf Doucette. He graduated from Malden ...

's '' Life and Death of a Spanish Town'' (1937).The Life and Death of a Spanish Town: Author: Elliot Paul Publisher: London : Peter Davis; Publisher USA; Random House, New York;1st Edition (1937) ASIN B002DQL7GK

Notable people

* Rigoberto Soler, Impressionist painter; lived in the town from 1924 to 1956. *

(10 February 1891 – 7 April 1958), was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

who lived in the town for six years. *

Wilhelm Keitel Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (; 22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal and war criminal who held office as chief of the '' Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's Armed Forces, duri ...

, Field Marshal of

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

GermanyFour fair isles: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza & Formentera. Author Patrick Pringle.Publisher: Evans; First Edition (1961) ASIN: B0000CL346 owned a house in the town which remained empty until 1958 *

Denholm Elliott Denholm Mitchell Elliott, (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English actor, with more than 125 film and television credits. His well-known roles include the abortionist in ''Alfie'' (1966), Marcus Brody in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (1981 ...

, British actor *

Terry-Thomas Terry-Thomas (born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens; 10 July 19118 January 1990) was an English character actor and comedian who became internationally known through his films during the 1950s and 1960s. He often portrayed disreputable members of th ...

, British actor *

Robin Maugham Robert Cecil Romer Maugham, 2nd Viscount Maugham (17 May 1916 – 13 March 1981), known as Robin Maugham, was a British author. Trained as a barrister, he served with distinction in the Second World War, and wrote a successful novella, ''The S ...

, British novelist, playwright and travel writer. * Dame

Diana Rigg Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (20 July 193810 September 2020) was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series '' The Avengers'' (1965–1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in '' On H ...

, British actress *

Leslie Phillips Leslie Samuel Phillips (20 April 1924 – 7 November 2022) was an English actor, director, producer and author. He achieved prominence in the 1950s, playing smooth, upper-class comic roles utilising his "Ding dong" and "Hello" catchphrases. ...

, English actor *

Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier (; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an English actor and director who, along with his contemporaries Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud, was one of a trio of male actors who dominated the Theatre of the U ...

, English actor *

Nigel Davenport Arthur Nigel Davenport (23 May 1928 – 25 October 2013) was an English stage, television and film actor, best known as the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Birkenhead in the Academy Award-winning films '' A Man for All Seasons'' and ''Chariots of Fir ...

, English actor * Laureano Barrau, impressionist painter lived and died in the town

Gallery

File:Town hall Eularia.JPG, The Ajuntament (Town Hall) File:SantaEularia.jpg, Port and town of Santa Eulària des Riu from NE. File:Santa Eulària des Riu 6-05-2007 10-54-02.jpg, Seafront and beach with the hill 'Puig d’ en Fita' in the background. File:PuigdeMissa.jpg, Puig de Missa, a former mosque, now a church on a hill above the town. File:Marina of Santa Eulària des Riu.JPG, Marina of Santa Eulària des Riu. File:Cemetery in Santa Eulària.jpg, Cemetery. File:SS Mallorca.jpg, The SS Mallorca which sank on the 17th January 1913 after running aground on a reef around ''Illa Redona'' File:View of Santa Eulalia 1943 Rigoberto Soler.jpg, ''View of Santa Eulària'' (1943) by Rigoberto Soler File:Podenco ibicenco S.Eularia.JPG, One of the statues dedicated

Ibizan Hound The Ibizan Hound ( es, podenco ibicenco, ca, ca eivissenc) is a lean, agile dog of the hound family. There are two hair types of the breed: smooth and wire. The more commonly seen type is the smooth. Some consider there to be a third type, lo ...

s File:Ibi z a.JPG, Fountain with mill File:Saigua.jpg, Playa de Es Figueral

References

External links

*
Ajuntament de Santa Eulària des Riu

Consell Insular d'Eivissa i Formentera

Population figures of the Balearic Islands
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eularia des Riu, Santa Towns in Ibiza Mediterranean port cities and towns in Spain Seaside resorts in Spain