Sant Llorenç de Balàfia

Sant Llorenç de Balàfia is a small village in the north central area of the municipality of Sant Joan de Labritja.

The construction of its church began in 1785, ordered by the first bishop of Ibiza, Abad y Lasierra, and was completed in 1797. While building work lasted, religious ceremonies were held in a nearby house with defense tower.
This church has only a single arch as entrance to the typical porch.
It consists of a single nave and seven side chapels, the last one added in the nineteenth century.

Balàfia, within sight of the village of Sant Llorenç, is a grouping of five houses in the purest style of the traditional Ibizan architecture with small windows, juxtaposed flat clay roofs of different sizes, ovens for baking bread und whitewashed crosses on top of doors or windows. The purpose of these crosses is the protection against negative influences.
Two of the houses have noteworthy rural refuge towers, of conical cylindrical shape. These two towers are known as the " Towers of Balàfia " and were built to serve as a refuge for the inhabitants of the houses in case of pirate attacks. The whole settlement maintains its original purity and is one of the most beautiful and significant of its kind in the Pityusic islands.
The origins of Balàfia, as is the case with the vast majority of Ibizan rural dwellings, are difficult to determine due to lack of historical information, but it could date back to the Islamic period .