Puig de Randa (Santuari de Cura)
Climb · Mallorca
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Puig de Randa (Santuari de Cura) is a 5.0 km cycling climb averaging 4.8% (+243 m), rising from 301 m to 539 m in Mallorca.
The pilgrims' climb of the flat half: the road exists to serve three sanctuaries, ending at Cura, where Ramon Llull founded Mallorca's first hermitage in 1275. Outside the Tramuntana it is among the busiest ascents on the island, fullest from March to May.
5.0 km · +243 m · 4.8% avg · ~8.5% max · 301 → 539 m · 9 hairpins
Stats computed from OpenStreetMap and satellite elevation data — approximate.
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Gradient by colour: ● <3% ● 3–6% ● 6–9% ● 9%+
Where it bites
Steepest 500 m: 8.5% (km 3.5–3.9).
Road: paved throughout
| km | to | avg |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 360 m | 6.0% |
| 2 | 412 m | 5.7% |
| 3 | 461 m | 4.9% |
| 4 | 520 m | 5.4% |
What it’s like to ride
Randa village throws the hardest part at you first, a few ramps of around 10% through its narrow streets, before the road settles into the 5% it holds for most of the way up and never goes steeper than 8%. From there you are on the Ma-5018, not a wide road but in fairly good condition, with a centreline and irregular switchbacks, and enough room for a car or even a bus to pass safely with good visibility through most of the turns. Around 2 km in, a narrow hairpin opens the view down to the valley, and from roughly 3 km the panorama stays with you to the top; the hillside is shrubbery and scattered pines with a shortage of trees by the roadside, so expect no shade and real heat. If you want the hard version, a lane branches right at 1.4 km with 16 consecutive hairpins, much narrower and pitching up to 13%, rejoining the main road higher. The finish is a wide left-hand bend that suddenly hands you the whole island, then the Santuari de Cura at 543 m: Mallorca's first monastery, a radar station tower, a large stone courtyard, and a bar-restaurant where riders stop for coffee and cake or something more substantial.
History
The road exists to serve the sanctuaries on the hill: it leaves Randa village and climbs past the hermitages of Gràcia and Sant Honorat before ending at the Santuari de Cura on the 543 m summit. Puig de Randa has drawn pilgrims since Ramon Llull founded Mallorca's first hermitage here in 1275, and the site came back from a nineteenth-century collapse in the summer of 1913, when the Bishop of Mallorca, Pere Joan Campins, handed the decayed buildings to the Third Order Regular of St Francis to rebuild. The complex at the top is twentieth-century work: the monastery, the guest rooms and the friars' quarters were begun in 1947, the image of the Virgin was given a papal coronation in 1955, and the restaurant was inaugurated in 1956. The people going up now are as likely to be weekend cyclists as seekers of religious truth, and the ascent is among the busiest on the island outside the Serra de Tramuntana, at its fullest from March to May.
Worth stopping near the climb
More climbs in Mallorca
Common questions
- How long and steep is Puig de Randa (Santuari de Cura)?
- Puig de Randa (Santuari de Cura) is a 5.0 km cycling climb averaging 4.8% (+243 m), rising from 301 m to 539 m in Mallorca.
- Where is Puig de Randa (Santuari de Cura) steepest?
- The steepest 500 m averages 8.5%, between km 3.5 and km 3.9 of the climb.
- How many hairpins does Puig de Randa (Santuari de Cura) have?
- Puig de Randa (Santuari de Cura) has 9 hairpin bends, counted from the road's map geometry (a hairpin here means at least 150 degrees of turning completed within 150 metres of road). Painted corner numbers on some climbs count gentler bends too, so the two figures can differ.
- What is the road surface like on Puig de Randa (Santuari de Cura)?
- Puig de Randa (Santuari de Cura) is paved throughout.