El salt de la bella dona - The jump of the beautiful woman

In Mallorcan, refers to a gorge that is located in the heart of the Tramontana mountain range, an unavoidable visit for all those who are going to travel to Mallorca. But this name has a magical origin that has become one of the best-known legends on the island.

The legend

The stories are telling that many, many years ago, lived a woman in the area, of a beauty out of the ordinary. Her boyfriend, who was very jealous, suffered terribly because of it. One day, devoured by jealousy, he proposed to her to go up the next day to the Monastery of the Mare de Déu de Lluc, of whose Virgin she was very devoted, to go and pray to her. She, all happy, accepted without hesitation, without suspecting the terrible intentions of her boyfriend. That day, in full ascent, while passing by the gorge ‘Es Grau’, the groom proposed that she approach the edge with the excuse that she enjoy the wonderful views of the island that can be seen from there. When she did so, without a word and totally out of his mind, he pushed her down the gorge. It is said that the scream of terror that the poor girl uttered as she fell was horrifying.

Once the cruel murder was committed, the groom began his way back to the village. But, halfway through, the guilt and bad conscience of what he had done tormented him in such a way that he decided to resume his ascent to the monastery in order to ask forgiveness before the Virgin for the atrocious act he had performed. When he entered the chapel, before his incredulous eyes, he found his girlfriend, totally unharmed, on her knees praying to the Virgin who, working a miracle, had saved the girl. Relieved and with tears in his eyes, the groom ran to embrace her, begging for forgiveness and promising that he would never hurt her again. It is said that while they embraced, the image of the Virgin de la Mare de Déu began to levitate with them.

As usually happens with all these legends, there are different versions. For example, there are some who say that it was not the groom who pushed her but she jumped trying to escape from him. There is also another version in which it is said that the woman was unfaithful to him with a shepherd and even a variant of pagan origin in which this supposed lover was a deity who flew to rescue her when he heard the heartbreaking cries of the girl as she fell down the gorge.

Legends apart, what is indisputable is that the views from this gorge are some of the most beautiful we can see during our holidays in Mallorca. However, we would like to point out that there are people who swear that they have heard the distant cries, like those of the past of the beautiful woman, resounding mysteriously from this gorge.