San Juan Bautista

Located in the north-west of Ibiza, Sant Joan de Labritja (San Juan Bautista) is a district which has been well preserved ecologically. It is made up of four rural parishes: Sant Joan de Labritja, Sant Miquel de Balanzat, Sant Vicent de Sa Cala and Sant Llorenç de Balàfia. It comes as no surprise, then, to find many examples of traditional, white farmhouses scattered across the green countryside. The area, with its abundance of beaches with limpid waters and coves, often hidden among steep cliffs, is an earthly paradise for divers, hikers and nature lovers.

Sant Joan de Labritja’s best-known tourist resorts are Cala de Portinatx, Port de Sant Miguel and Cala de Sant Vicent. Here, visitors will find all kinds of services, and more adventurous types will also discover other secluded and extraordinarily beautiful coves such as Benirràs, Cala Xarraca and Cala d’en Serra. 

But Sant Joan de Labritja has much more to offer than sun and sand, because the municipality also boasts pretty rural churches and monuments, as well as examples of traditional Ibizan architectural style — solid, white-walled, centuries-old buildings with cobbled courtyards.

Not far from San Juan Bautista is the Es Culleram cave, an ancient Phoenician-Punic sanctuary dedicated to the Phoenician god Melkart and the Carthaginian goddess Tanit. It is known that the cave was used as a sanctuary from the end of the fifth century to the second century B.C., a fact borne out by the number of votive figures to the goddess Tanit and other objects discovered there. Many of these pieces can now be seen in the Archaeological Museum and in Ibiza’s Museo Monográfico del Puig des Molins.

Another essential visit is to the Molar tower, a structure that stands on the coast very near to Port de San Miquel. This was part of the island’s network of defensive towers during the eighteenth century. The tower has two storeys connected by a spiral staircase, with an entrance on the first floor, although later, in the twentieth century, a ground-floor entrance was added. Of similar interest is the watchtower at Portinatx, also built during the eighteenth century with the aim of protecting the precipitous terrain of the north of the island. The Portinatx tower is a circular, two-storey edifice with two decorative bands and an upper platform.

Another of Sant Joan de Labritja’s noteworthy attractions, and definitely one worth seeing, is the rural settlement of Balàfia. Located just a stone’s throw from Sant Llorenç is a group of five centuries-old, rural dwellings built in the most typical Ibizan architectural style, with small windows; flat, clay, juxtaposed roofs; bread ovens, and crosses painted in lime on the windows and doors to ward off evil. Two of the houses have striking refuge towers, built originally as a safeguard against attacks by pirates.

Isla de las Gaviotas, Las Xernas, Punta Xarraca and Isla Murada are just a few of the area’s many spectacular settings suitable for watersports and diving. And lovers of good food will find an extensive range of excellent restaurants where they can enjoy mouthwatering traditional Ibizan cuisine.