At that time, seafarers from Genoa were stranded in the narrow bay in the southwest. They were caught in a cap de fibló, a cyclone, on their way to mainland Spain. They came from one of the most developed and densely populated regions in Europe. Genoa was one of the most important seaports of the old continent at the beginning of the modern age, where the voyages of discovery of the New World were to begin a little later. In contrast, Mallorca's southwest was uninhabited no man's land in the middle of the 15th century.
Nevertheless, the sailors blessed this lost piece of earth as if it were paradise. After all, with their hulls broken, their masts broken and their sails torn apart, they hadn't believed in escaping the tornado. In their distress they had vowed on board to build an altar to the Virgin Mary should they ever enter land again.
The place of the redeemed vow is called "Ses coves de Mare de Déu" (The Caves of the Blessed Mother). It is about a hundred meters from the small beach of Portals Vells and gives it its name (Portals - Tore). Actually, it is only one, deep and expansive cave But because workers in the Middle Ages punched three huge, gate-like holes in the rock to gradually hollow it out, these are called coastal caves in the plural. The sandstone became the building of the cathedral and city palaces of Majorcan Commercial families were transported to Palma, leaving a dark hole that served as a shelter for sailors, so the legend says.