Sant Mateu d'Albarca: Wine, Nature and Cultural Heritage

When choosing Sant Mateu d'Albarca as a destination, you can focus on four themes: wine, designated natural areas, hiking and cultural heritage. The options differ in their visiting requirements and time frames. This makes it easier to plan your stay around whether a wine tasting that requires advance booking, a particular hiking duration or historical sites are most important to you.

Winery Tour and Wine Tasting

Can Maymó is a family winery founded in Sant Mateu in 1995. The winery offers guided tours. There is also a tasting of four wines accompanied by local cheese and charcuterie. Tours and tastings must be booked in advance; dates are seasonal. If you plan to go wine tasting, check the seasonal dates and book in good time. Can Maymó also produces extra virgin olive oil and has around 500 olive trees.

Wine and olive oil give the winery different areas of focus. The wine tasting features four wines, along with regional cheese and charcuterie; extra virgin olive oil is another product made by the winery.

Protected Natural Areas

The cliffs of Camp Vell in Sant Mateu d'Albarca lie within the ES0000516 Special Protection Area for birds. The Serra de Sant Mateu d’Albarca is designated an Area of Special Natural Interest within Es Amunts. These are two different types of protection: bird protection applies to the cliffs, while the Area of Special Natural Interest designation applies to the Serra.

If protected areas play a role in your choice of destination, these designations offer specific points of reference for the area's natural features. They refer to named areas and distinguish between bird protection and special natural interest. This makes it possible to link a general interest in landscape and nature to two specific designations.

Hikes with Different Time Frames

When choosing a route, you can start by comparing the stated durations. A circular hike of 2 to 3 hours is recommended around the Poljé de Sant Mateu. The route from Sant Mateu to Torres den Lluc is a circular trail of just over 11 kilometres and takes around four hours. This gives you different time frames to choose from; for the route to Torres, an approximate distance is also provided.

If you are weighing up how much time you have available, the recommended loop around the Poljé is the shorter of the two stated durations. You can allow around four hours for the route to Torres den Lluc. It starts at Sant Mateu church, so the starting point for this hike is also specified.

Church, Historic Ensemble and Torres den Lluc

The parish church of Sant Mateu was built between 1785 and 1796. It is also the starting point for the hiking route to Torres den Lluc. The historic ensemble of Sant Mateu d'Albarca was classified as a Bien de Interés Cultural (BIC) on 29 March 1996. This date refers to the classification of the ensemble, not the construction period of the church.

Torres den Lluc are part of a larger fortification whose purpose is not precisely known. The historical references therefore include different kinds of information: the construction period of the parish church, the date the ensemble was classified, and an unresolved question about the purpose of the fortification. This allows you to distinguish the dated information from the explicitly uncertain interpretation.

Access to the Sinclinal de Cala d’Albarca

Access to the Sinclinal de Cala d’Albarca starts in Sant Mateu d’Albarca on the road to the right of Camp Vell restaurant. The road is called Camí Turs or PMV-804-1. After about 715 metres, you reach a junction.

For orientation, the reference to Camp Vell restaurant and the two road names are useful. The stated distance to the junction is approximate; it provides a specific waypoint for the access route described. This lets you identify the directions using the location reference, road name and distance.

Discover more destinations: Cala Llonga, Cala de Sant Vicent, Cala Gracio, Nuestra Señora De Jesús, San Agustín, Sant Joan De Labritja, Sant Francesc De S'estany, Sant Josep De Sa Talaia.

For the main travel overview: Ibiza.