VILLA CARLOS

Villa Carlos (nowadays Es Castell) is situated on the little bays of Cala Fons and Cala Corp on the southern shores of Port Mahon and is 3km from Mahon. It has the distinction of being the most easterly town in Spain. Like Mahon it is steeped in history, but has in recent years blossomed into a thriving holiday resort with modern hotels with swimming pools. It has a picturesque, small water-front, with cafes, bars and discotheques, some in caves.
If Mahon's development was haphazard, Villa Carlos is an excellent example of eighteenth-century town-planning, the design of its streets being the now common one based on the right-angle or grid pattern. The reason is that it was a purpose built town designed by the British to house military personnel and their families from the nearby garrison of Fort St Philip. The British called their new cantonment Georgetown after George III, and when Britain lost Minorca to the Spanish in 1782 it was renamed Villa Real de Son Carlos, which became shortened to its present-day name of Villa Carlos. It still has a Stuart Street and a Victory Street, and a spacious barrack square known today as the Champ de Mars, in British colonial style, that could have come straight out of New England. Its barracks are still in use by Spanish military and police departments, and the Georgian building with its clock-tower is the present Municipal Chambers. The armorial bearings of the town still include the figure of St George of England.
This account of a truly unique town would be incomplete without relating the still stranger story of its predecessor, St Philip's Town, which stood nearby and has now completely vanished.
As early as 1554, when building of the first Fort St Philip began under the engineer Calvi, the workmen lived in a village they built near by, which grew to 3,000 by 1685, and became known as Felipet. Like most pioneer settlements it had a reputation for lawlessness, and when the British started extending and strengthening the fort in 1713 they demolished Felipet, and built a small town about 500m farther back which was at first called Arrabel Vella ('the suburb'). This soon spanned the whole neck of the peninsula to the south of the fort, as is shown on contemporary maps, and was named St Philip's Town. This housed the British garrison and their families until just before the French attack in 1756, when it was realised that it would give excellent 'cover for an enemy attacking the fort, and was therefore partly demolished. It was not, however, completely razed to the ground till 1774, in the middle years of the second British occupation, when Georgetown was built in its place.
 

SAN LUIS

From Villa Carlos it is but a few kilometres' drive to the little French town of San Luis, built during the French occupation that followed on the Byng disaster in 1756. One can also approach San Luis by the main road from Mahon, leaving it by the Esplanade. On this road one passes on the right the small former airport, now Minorca's  flying club. San Luis shines white in the brilliant sunlight, and has several equally white villages around it. The remains of its many windmills (used to pump water) indicate that it had previously been a populated agricultural area, as also do its defence towers, a notable one being at Binifadet. For such a very small town, it has a very impressive dual carriageway, gay with flowers on the dividing islands. The planners are clearly looking to the future.
 

SAN CLEMENTE

San Clemente has good prospects for the future as it is close to the international airport and on the way to a number of important tourist developments, which include Binixeica, and Cala'n Porter. It grew from a tiny group of peasant dwellings in the fourteenth century known as Musupta, a name which still appears on a number of outlying houses; but it was first occupied at a much earlier period. Near by is the prehistoric talayot of Torello, and the remains of a Christian basilica dating from Roman times.
 

ALAYOR

Alayor, Minorca's third town in size (the population is a little over 5,000), is built spectacularly on a hill. The hill is crowned by its parish church of Santa Eulalia, and its white buildings gather round it on the slopes. With Monte Toro rising behind in the distance, it is an impressive sight when approached from the south via Torralba.  Alayor is said to have been founded in1304 by Jaime II of Majorca, but the prefix 'al' in its name suggests Moorish origin. It has, however, been a centre of population for much longer, as its relics of Roman roads and surrounding prehistoric villages indicate. The church of Santa Eulalia was built towards the end of the seventeenth century, and has an attractive interior. If one climbs the narrow street beyond to the summit of the hill, there are fine views of the countryside, with low hills to the north.
Alayor is a municipality, and the local government administrative centre for the termino (or district) of Alayor, which includes Cala'n Porter. Its chief industry is shoemaking, which is of a very high standard, largely carried on as a cottage industry. Like the other small towns in Minorca, it has a lively community life, with its art exhibitions, sports and fiesta days, even its chess tournaments (in spite of the popularity of television).
Alayor has one more claim to our notice. Its inhabitants are noted for being musical, and hold a Minorcan Song Festival each year, which also attracts outside talent. This is broadcast on national radio channels.
 

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