Courtyard Can Muntanyans (Mallorca)

Courtyard Can Muntanyans

Carrer de Sant Pere i Sant Bernat
Courtyard Can Muntanyans

Carrer de Sant Pere i Sant Bernat
Courtyard Can Muntanyans

Carrer de Sant Pere i Sant Bernat

Courtyard Can Muntanyans

In the late 15th century the Muntanyans family was a well-known dynasty of particular significance in the intellectual circles of the city of Palma. The canon Nicolau de Muntanyans, who eventually became an Inquisitor, was one particularly significant member of the family and, like other family members, he had humanistic preoccupations and agreed with the new cultural climate of the Renaissance.

The ancestral home, which stands beside the Cathedral chevet, became the residence of the canons. It now forms part of the priests’ residence established in the Baroque building of the brotherhood of Sant Pere and Sant Bernat. Over time, this institution came to replace the functions of the former Presbyters’ Hospital, founded thanks to the legacy of the presbyter Antoni Llana in the year 1475.

In spite of the restructuring work it has undergone over the years, the Muntanyans house still conserves important Gothic elements such as the studio doorway – with the family coat of arms -, the pointed arches of the patio and the interior rooms, and a set of coats of arms that are extremely representative of late Mallorcan Gothic.

In the 17th century it came to be owned by the Church and served as a residence for sacristan canons. During the first three decades of the 20th century Mossèn Alcover lived here, as we are reminded by a stone plaque on the right of the doorway. The house was renovated in 1990.