Monte Toro

MERCADAL

Visit to the Sanctuary of Monte Toro

The summit of Monte Toro, with a sanctuary housing the image of the patron saint of Menorca, constitutes the spiritual center of the island. According to popular tradition, a group of Mercedarian monks from the convent of Podio d'Osterno, which then existed in Llinàritx, found the image of the "mare de déu" (the Mother of God). Alerted by a light that emitted strong sparks during the night, the monks climbed to the top of the mountain, where a bull cleared their way through the rocks, and they discovered the image of the "mare de déu". Surprised by the find, they moved the image to their convent, from where it disappeared during the night, only for them to find it in the center of the summit of Monte Toro. The monks deduced from this miracle that the "mare de déu" wanted to be venerated in that place, where they built a chapel. As Archduke Lluís Salvador tells us, the image was destroyed by a fire, and the one currently venerated at Monte Toro was gifted to the congregation by seven bishops who participated in the Council of Trent and arrived on the island after surviving a terrible storm. The church, which dates back to 1670, is crowned by a simple dome and has three side chapels. In one of these chapels, the cave where the image was found is displayed, as well as the amphora where it was hidden underground between 1936 and 1939, after a farmer from Mercadal saved it from the fire. The image, a wooden carving that is situated within the Catalan tradition of black madonnas, is found in the High Altar chapel. In ancient times, it was a custom among the people of Menorca to climb Monte Toro on foot to venerate their patron saint. Attached to the sanctuary, forming one of the walls of the entrance courtyard, is a defensive tower with a tetrahedral plan built in the year 1558 on an old watchtower that allowed the population to be warned, by means of smoke signals, of the arrival of enemy ships. In the entrance courtyard, with a well for the pilgrim to refresh themselves and gain strength, there is also the monument erected in memory of the Menorcans who emigrated to Florida during the British domination of the 18th century, guided by Father Pere Camps Gener, a native of Mercadal. In the outer enclosure, there are two more commemorative monuments: the Sacred Heart, at whose base there is a plaque with the names of the Menorcan combatants who died in the Africa campaign of 1925, and the monument to the emigrants to Algeria, placed more recently. This image remembers the men and women who left Menorca in the first half of the 19th century to settle in the French colony. By 1835, the Menorcans already constituted a prosperous community in Algeria, whose descendants still preserve their island traditions today in towns like Fort de L'Eau.