Santa Maria de les Neus church

The current church of El Port de la Selva of Saint Mary of the Snows is a construction of the first half of the XX century. In 1944, the abbot of Girona opened the post-civil war construction. In 1962 it was reopened for its extension and modernization. The ground floor is a Latin cross shape. The walls of the Main Altar are exposed brickwork, in the shape of a trapezium, and the transepts of the cross are made of exposed brickwork of materials from this country. From outside, it is perfectly differentiated the old nave of the new extensions. The side chapels, which are preserved from the old church, do not have altars except one, although the images have been preserved in pedestals. The image of Saint Peter stands out for its age, in Gothic style on polychrome stone. It was saved from the pillage of the Monastery and is dated in XV century. In the other chapels there are Saint Mary of the Snows, patron saint of El Port de la Selva, an image of Our Lady of the Rosary, and at the chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, patron saint of fishermen, there is a beautiful collection of fonts donated by the couple Sagarra i Trias. At the Main Altar, an iron Christ preside the temple, work of the Cadaqués sculptor Demetri Kontos.

Location

It is locates at the centre of the historic centre of the town. It can be accessed by the street Sant Baldiri or cantó de l'Església that goes up directly from the street Illa at the coastline of the town.

History

This devotion for Saint Mary of the Snows appears on written document for the first time in 1714 under the name of the President of la Junta de Obras del Templo de Santa María de las Nieves, when the construction of the first building was under consideration. The joy of Saint Mary of the Snows, of the Collection "Editorial Políglota", number 14, in 1929; mentions the legend which explains that a church was built in the name of Saint Mary of the Snows at the place marked by the “white snow signal”, in memory of the original legend of the saint. The legend says that in Rome, when the Pope watches, in the middle of summer, a big snowfall in one of the seven hills and in a clearing, in the middle of the snow, appears a small image of the virgin. In that place, a church was built in her honour. Josep Mallol i Oriol explain in “A corner of the Mare Nostrum”, how the people said that soon after people began to live in the town, on 5th august, there was a hail that covered the whole town in white, but did not manage the fields, on the contrary, that year the harvest was abundant. When they could build a church, they chose Saint Mary of the Snows as patron saint. In old times, until the beginning of the XX century, a snowfall was enacted inside the church as a memory. The program of 1926, with a cover with all the art nouveau characteristics by Antoni Costa Vilanova and a poem of Josep Mª de Sagarra, shows that it was a consolidated celebration and everybody took part in it.

Mass

• Winter: Sundays at 12h 
• Summer: Sundays at 20h