Sancellas

The Talayotic era has left many traces in the town, the most important is the talayotic town of Son Fred.

During the Muslim period of the island, Sancellas belonged to the district of Canarossa, alongside Binisalem, Alaró, Santa Maria, Santa Eugenia, Costitx and Lloseta.

With the conquest of Mallorca by James I of Aragon, Sencelles became part of the territories of William II de Bearn, the Viscount of Bearn.

At the end of the sixteenth century Biniali grew enough to be considered a village. In the late nineteenth century all the cultivation of vines was destroyed by a plague. This made that the small villages started to depopulate.

Sister Francinaina Cirer (1781 - 1855) becomes a human and religious icon. She was beatificated by John Paul II on the 1^st of October 1989. This nun is admired throughout Mallorca for the many miraculous healings attributed to her.

In 1855 Costitx was separated from Sancellas after many years of rivalry and confrontation between the two locations.

History of Ruberts

The centre of Ruberts is located in between the boundaries which separate Sencelles, Lloret de Vistalegre, Costitx and Algaida.

Ruberts, located in the valley with the same name, is situated on a hill near one of the flood margins of Torrent de Pina, and surrounded by some elevations and plateaus which make that the valley is enclosed and that the centre can not be seen from the nearest exterior.

The physical characteristics of the site, as well as its origin, are linked to the agricultural tasks of the estate of Son Jordà, which makes that Ruberts stretches out around the estate, almost in a radial position with the heart of the centre.

The urban layout is irregular and is structured around the estate, using the maximum of the small space between the path of Lloret and the main road , which is the end of the built centre, so to say, the Major street with Costa d'en Coranta.

The main street, which surrounds the whole, leads to the square where the church is located and also the access to the old estate, now converted into agritourism. The remaining streets are narrow and short, and were formed at the time of consolidation and growth of the village; no recent substantial changes have taken place.

The structure of the buildings is characterized by a large overall balance due to the presence of a certain uniformity in the type of housing, typically with very few storeys. It can be said that despite the long chronological development of this settlement, the buildings are of a considerable homogeneity.

The progressive abandonment that occurred from the second half of the twentieth century has made that the village has not been significantly modified by construction work outside the traditional typology, and it is representative of the architecture of Mallorca in the centuries XVI-XIX.

Another feature of this village is that, by its small size, the road structures are reduced to almost a minimum and that there is a high degree of connection or mixing between the urban and rural environment that surrounds it, so, that while being in the centre the visual relationship with the rustic environment is never lost. In fact, the concentric situation of the centre, built into the landscape surrounding it is enhanced by different pedestrian paths which extend radially from the centre to various places.

Sancellas (officially and in Catalan: Sencelles) is a town on the Balearic island of Mallorca.It is located in the geographic centre of the island, at 25 km from the capital, Palma de Mallorca.

In Sancellas the concept of “pueblo de pueblos”can be observed , as the muncipality of Sencelles includes the villages of Ruberts, Jornets, Ca's Canar, Son Arros and Biniali. These places, small and sparsely populated, are one of the tourist attractions of Sencelles. These villages are the last places where you can observe the traditional rural architecture of Mallorca. Before, the villages were healthy and thriving due to agricultural activity, mainly the cultivation of wine, but due to a plague in the late nineteenth century, the villages were depopulated.