Es Cubells location gives this place a special charm, as it is built near a huge cliff. It is also just a small village although many country houses surround it. The largest buildings are a convent of the Teresian order, on the outskirts of the village and not open to the public, and the church, which was built with its back wall to the cliff.
The church was built thanks to the efforts of the Carmelite priest Francesc Palau, who settled in the small parish and asked Rome for permission to build a church. He argued that the closest church, in Sant Josep, was too far away. The letter was sent to Rome in 1855, and the answer arrived a decade later in the form of an authorisation to build a private oratory in his own house.
For many years no mass was celebrated in this small temple, and it was inhabited by hermits and farmers, until 1867 the oratory became Es Cubells church, devoted to Virgin Carmen, although it was not considered a parish with full rights until 1940. The works were finished in 1958, and it is the newest of the churches built following the rural architectural style of the island.
At the right hand of the church there is a statue in honour to brother Francesc Palau, who was born in Lleida (Catalonia) in 1811. He is part of the island’s history also for spending long periods of time alone in Es Vedrà.
