Calvary and Chapel
One cannot visit Serra without taking a walk along its Calvary and enjoying the view from its Chapel. A short, quite walk up to the Calvary is always worth it, especially after a good meal, either at dawn or at dusk.
Its location and shape make of Serra’s Calvary a unique construction. Its peculiar stepped terraces are unique and incomparable. Theses terraces are built with sandstone, often used in popular constructions. Terraces harbour the fourteen steps of the Via Crucis, which are depicted inside small chapels in Gothic-like style.
Serra’s current Calvary is the result of several ampliations and modifications that have been carried out since the 17th century. These went along the changes in the cemeteries around the Church. The first recorded Calvary dates back to 1620, and it must have been near the cemetery, although there are no remains of it. The next Calvary would be built in 1744 and it lasted for about a century. Finally, the works for the Calvary as it is preserved today started in 1886. It was finished and inaugurated in 1893.
At the top of the Calvary, there is the Chapel of Sant Josep i la Creu, a simple building from 1894. It is a small chapel with a two-sloped roof, a white façade and an apse covered by a slanted roof. Next to the Chapel, there is the tower of L’Ermita, a 9th century structure that used to be part of Serra’s Castle surveillance system.
