This gracious monastery stands atop the 548m hill of Puig de Randa. Like most monasteries, it was built partly for defence purposes, though supposedly the monks enjoyed the heavenly views, too. Ramon Llull lived here as a hermit, praying in a cave (now closed to visitors). In the 16th century, the Estudi General (university) in Palma created the Collegi de Gramàtica here, and for centuries thereafter live-in students grappled with the complexities of Latin grammar, rhetoric and other classical disciplines.
There’s a decent bar-restaurant within the monastery grounds. The Santuari, which is variously signposted as ‘Santuari de Cura’ or simply ‘Cura’, is 5km beyond the small village of Randa, southwest of Algaida.
