The Mini Rough Guide to Menorca - Softcover

Lee, Phil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1858287081 ISBN 13: 9781858287089

Publisher: Rough Guides, 2001

Synopsis

INTRODUCTION

Often and unfairly maligned as an overdeveloped, package-tourist nightmare, boomerang-shaped Menorca is, in fact, the least developed – and second largest member of – the Balearic Islands, an archipelago to the east of the Spanish mainland which also comprises Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Unlike its neighbours, Menorca remains essentially rural, its rolling fields, wooded ravines and humpy hills filling out the interior in between its two main – but still small – towns of Maó and Ciutadella. Much of this landscape looks pretty much as it did at the turn of the twentieth century – though many of the fields are no longer cultivated – and only on the edge of the island, and then only in parts, have its rocky coves been colonized by sprawling villa complexes. Nor is the development likely to spread: the resorts have been kept at a discreet distance from the two main towns, and this is how the Menorcans like it. Furthermore, determined to protect their island from the worst excesses of the tourist industry, the Menorcans have clearly demarcated development areas and are meanwhile pushing ahead with a variety of environmental schemes. The most prominent is the creation of a chain of conservation areas that will eventually protect much of the island, including the pristine coves that are one of its real delights. There are also plans to revamp the old mule track that once circled the entire island and turn it into a footpath.

Menorca stretches from the enormous natural harbour and island capital of Maó in the east to the smaller port of Ciutadella in the west, a distance of just 45km. These two towns, boasting over sixty percent of the population, have preserved much of their eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century appearance, though Ciutadella’s labyrinthine centre, with its grandee mansions and Gothic cathedral, has the aesthetic edge over Maó’s plainer, more mercantile architecture. Running through the interior between the two, the main C721 highway forms the island’s backbone, linking a trio of pocket-sized market towns – Alaior, Es Mercadal and Ferreries – and succouring what little industry Menorca enjoys, a few shoe factories and cheese-making plants. Branching off the highway, a sequence of asphalted side roads lead to the resorts that notch the north and south coasts. Mercifully, these tourist developments are largely confined to individual coves and bays, and only amongst the sprawling! villa-villages of the southeast and on the west coast have they become overpowering.

The main highway also acts as a rough dividing line between Menorca’s two distinct geological areas. In the north, sandstone predominates, giving a red tint to the low hills which roll out towards the bare, surf-battered coastline. One of the many coves and inlets along this stretch shelters the lovely fishing village and mini-resort of Fornells. To the south, all is limestone, with low-lying flatlands punctuated by bulging hills and fringed by a cove-studded coastline. Straddling the two zones, Monte Toro, Menorca’s highest peak and the site of a quaint little convent, offers panoramic views which reveal the topography of the whole island. Clearly visible from here are the wooded ravines that gash the southern zone, becoming deeper and more dramatic as you travel west – especially around Cala Santa Galdana, a popular resort set beneath severe, pine-clad seacliffs.

This varied terrain supports a smattering of minuscule villages and solitary farmsteads, present witnesses to an agriculture that had become, before much of it was killed off by tourism, highly advanced. Every field was protected by a dry-stone wall (tanca) to prevent the Tramuntana, the vicious north wind, from tearing away the topsoil. Even olive trees had their roots individually protected in little stone wells, while compact stone ziggurats sheltered cattle from both the wind and the blazing sun. Nowadays, apart from a few acres of rape and corn, many of the fields are barren, but the walls and ziggurats survive, as do many of the old twisted gates made from olive branches.

The landscape is further cluttered by hundreds of crude stone memorials, mostly dating from the second millennium BC. Yet, despite this widespread physical evidence, little is known of the island’s prehistory. The most common monuments are thought to be linked to those of Sardinia and are attributed to the so-called Talayotic culture, which reached a peak of activity here in Menorca in around 1000 BC. Talayots are the rock mounds found all over the island. Popular belief has it that they functioned as watchtowers, but it’s a theory few experts accept: they have no interior stairway, and only a few are found on the coast. Even so, no one has come up with a more convincing explanation. Taulas – huge stones topped with another to form a "T", around four metres high – are unique to Menorca and even more puzzling. They have no obvious function, and they are almost always found alongside a talayot. Some of the best-preserved talayot and taula remains are on the edge of Maó at Talatí de Dalt; another site, Torrellafuda, is near Ciutadella. The third kind of prehistoric monument found on Menorca is the naveta, a stone-slab construction shaped like an inverted loaf tin, dating from between 1400 and 800 BC. Many have false ceilings, and although you can stand up inside, they were clearly not living spaces, but rather communal tombs, or ossuaries. The prime example is the Naveta d’es Tudons, outside Ciutadella.

In more recent times, the deep-water channel of the port of Maó promoted Menorca to an important position in European affairs. The British saw its potential as a naval base and captured the island in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession – five years later it was ceded to them under the Treaty of Utrecht. Spain regained possession in 1783, but with the threat of Napoleon in the Mediterranean, a new British base was temporarily established under admirals Nelson and Collingwood until Britain finally relinquished all claims to the island in 1802. The British influence on Menorca, especially its architecture, is still manifest: the sash windows so popular in Georgian design are even now sometimes referred to as winderes, locals often part with a fond bye-bye, and there’s a substantial expat community. The British also introduced the art of distilling juniper berries, and Menorcan gin (Xoriguer in particular) is now world-renowned.

About this title

About the Author

Phil Lee is an experienced Rough Guides author whose taste for adventure began when he joined the Danish merchant navy. He has written Rough Guides to Amsterdam, Brussels, Mallorca and Menorca, England, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CATALAN AND CASTILIAN

Since the death of Franco and the subsequent federalization of Spain, the Balearics have formed their own autonomous region and asserted the primacy of their language, Catalan (Català). On Menorca it s spoken with a slight local variation as the dialect Menorquín. The most obvious sign of this linguistic assertiveness is the recent replacement of Castilian (Spanish) street names by their Catalan equivalents. In speech, though, the islanders are almost all bilingual, speaking Castilian and Catalan with equal fluency, and you ll find no shortage of people with perfect English or French either. In this book we ve given the Catalan for everything to do with the islands from town, street and beach names through to topographical features and food as this is mostly what the visitor encounters.

PRACTICALITIES

Access to Menorca is easy from Britain and northern Europe, with plenty of charter flights and complete package deals, some of which drop to absurd prices out of season or through last-minute booking. From mainland Spain, both ferries and flights are frequent and comparatively inexpensive. The island has one airport (on the outskirts of Maó) and two ferry ports Maó, with connections to the mainland and Mallorca, and Ciutadella with links just to Mallorca. From these points of arrival, the rest of the island is within easy striking distance by car it only takes an hour or so to drive across Menorca and to a large extent by bus.

The main constraint for independent travellers is accommodation. From mid-June to mid-September, sometimes later, rooms are in very short supply. If you go at this time and especially in August you re well advised to make a reservation several weeks in advance or to book a package. Out of season, things ease up and you can idle around, staying pretty much where you want, though many places close down from November to April. The best bases are Maó, Fornells and Ciutadella, each of which has a small cache of all-year hotels and hostals. In two weeks, you ll have more than enough time to explore the island three and you ll be able to investigate its every nook and cranny.

CLIMATE

Spring and autumn are the ideal times for a visit, when the weather is comfortably warm, with none of the oven-like temperatures which bake the island in July and August. It s well worth considering a winter break, too even in January, temperatures are usually high enough during the day to sit out at a café in shirtsleeves. The island sees occasional rain in winter, but nothing too serious and anyway this is when the rain renders the fields bright green with none of the bare, brown, sunburnt appearance of summer. The main winter irritant is the wind, which often blows fiercely from the north.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1858287081
• ISBN 13: 9781858287089
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288