MERCADAL

Mercadal lies at the centre of the island, under the shadow of Monte Toro.  Much of the finest agricultural land is around Mercadal, so that farming is a major industry. Shoes and furniture are also made.
 

SAN CRISTOBAL

San Cristobal is a pleasant village on high ground, through which one will pass on the way to Santo Tomas beach, in the south. It was founded in 1769 and grew around a hermitage. To the archaeological student the village and surroundings are notable for having the greatest density of megalithic remains on the island: five to the square kilometre. Some of these are of exceptional interest and will be noted in the chapter describing excursions. Francisco Camps, a noted Minorcan historian and student of local folklore, was born here. Although San Cristobal is only a village, it is known locally as Mitjorn Gran, which means 'the large town to the south'.
 

FERRERIAS

Ferrerias, on the main road to Ciudadela, is situated in a ravine, sheltered from the north by the hill of S'Enclusa, and is the highest town on the island. It is expanding, and it is proud of the wonderful beaches within its termino, including Santa Galdana. The town's main industry, apart from farming (some of it run on co-operative lines), is mainly the manufacture of high-quality furniture.
 

CIUDADELA

Ciudadela (Cieutadella), like Mahon, stands on a cliff at the head of a port, but there the resemblance between the towns ends. Its port is narrow and short inlet (1,100m in length), with steep sides prone to violent storms and even small tidal waves. (The water-level has been known to suddenly rise more than two metres.) In the town itself there is not a single building to remind one of the British. It is a cathedral city and the ecclesiastical headquarters of the island, with a population of a little over 12,000. A local saying goes: 'Mahon may have more people, but Ciudadela has more souls.' It has mellow, ancient palaces and arcaded streets (ses voltes), and is typically Moorish and Spanish in character, just as Mahon was British. But Ciudadela does not live in the past, being the centre of the shoemaking industry, and a business centre with excellent shops. A visit to Ciudadela makes a pleasant change.
Its port has regular sea communication by boat with Majorca - with Alcudia (3 hours) and with Palma (8 hours), and excursions can be made in the summer months. Private yachts also use the port at that time. It is a steep descent to the port, where the Yacht Club is situated, and the usual fishing craft and cafe bars. Without descending to the port one can get an excellent view of it from Borne Square, also called the Plaza Generalissimo, which is one of the main features of the town.
The old part of Ciudadela, which was completely walled up to the mid-eighteenth century, is still the heart of the city's life. A large road-sign on the outskirts .informs us that we are approaching a town of 'national tourist interest', and we enter its centre by crossing traffic lights into the little Plaza of Alfonso III, with its fountain and open-air cafes. Here, as one enters the narrow street called Virgen Carmen into its shopping area, stood the Mahon Gate, one of five gates, none of which now survive. The former landward walls followed the present course of the wide boulevards of Jose Antonio, Conquistador and Negrete which one has just crossed. The only remaining part of the walls is that overlooking the port itself. Passing the cathedral on the right, and the shady Moorish arches in the shopping street, it is best to proceed direct to Borne Square to park one's car, and retrace one's steps on foot.

Borne Square
The spacious Borne Square is pleasantly free of traffic, except around its perimiter.  'Borne' means 'palisade', and indicates that it was once used for knightly equestrian contests and jousting in the Middle Ages. In its centre is a tall obelisk raised by the citizens to commemorate their heroic defence against Turkish invaders, under the command of the renegade Admiral Mustapha Piali in 1558.
The imposing Municipal City Hall on the west side of the square is the former Moorish Alcazar or Governor's Palace, which has had many tenants. A residence of the Moorish governors in the Middle Ages, and later of senior British military officers, it was restored and put to its present use early in the present century. It has a fine Gothic Hall with panelled ceiling ,and houses the Municipal Museum. Among the portraits is one of the American Minorcan Admiral Farragut. Facing the hall and to its right, one looks down perpendicularly over the ramparts of the old city wall to the port far below. To its left access can still be gained to the port by a steep flight of steps (formerly through a postern gate) and known as La Cuesta del Mar. On the east side of the square is the eighteenth-century palace of the Count of Torre Saura, which has a dignified and pleasing exterior. It is privately owned and not open to the public. It has an inner courtyard with ivy-covered walls which opens into noble rooms with fine pictures and furniture, with a throne-room. The south side of the square opens into modern, wide residential boulevards and shady squares, and leads also towards the sea.

The cathedral and seignorial palaces
Retracing one's steps on foot through the white arcaded main shopping street, one enters the small square of Pius II, and stops on the left at the Gothic cathedral, which dates from the fourteenth century, and was built on the site of a mosque, small parts of which are incorporated in the present building. Alterations and additions have taken place from time to time but do not detract from its beauty. Some of the domes were rebuilt in 1626, and the main neo-classical facade in 1814. The Aragon and Ciudadela coats-of-arms appear above one of the doors. The interior is pleasing. It has a single nave in ogival Catalan style, and an apse in the shape of a pentagon, in which there is a choir with Gothic benches. It has three chapels in the Renaissance style. The cathedral was badly damaged in the Spanish Civil War, and has since been restored.
Two notable buildings stand close to the cathedral, the Olivar Palace opposite its main door, and the Bishop's Palace. The spacious rooms of the Olivar Palace house art collections and private archives. It has a library, and coin and archaeological collections. The Bishop's Palace is neo-classical, with an attractive patio with an arcaded gallery in Italian Renaissance style. Most of Ciudadela's palaces are in the Baroque style of the eighteenth century, but have been added to from time to time. In the Calle Santissimo is a second palace, belonging to the Saura family, which has a beautiful original Baroque façade.
The city's numerous palaces came to be built as a result of the increasing prosperity of the island's new aristocracy from the wool trade in the seventeenth century. The foundations of this aristocracy were laid in 1287 when, at the time of his conquest, Alphonso III of Aragon divided the lands of Minorca among his generals and favourites. Alphonso was both haphazard and generous in his gifts; a contemporary document states that he gave away whatever he was asked for, and earned the name of 'Alphonso the Liberal'. The recipients became known as Caballeros. Twenty-five years later his successor Jaime II of Majorca rationalised this state of affairs, and effected a redistribution of lands. More important, he introduced a wise system of inheritance (known as hereu), which in substance remains today. While large farms usually passed to elder sons, the important clause was that which prevented divided inheritance, and their breaking up into small units.
 At the beginning of the sixteenth century the Caballeros began to leave their country homes and settled in Ciudadela, though they were still comparatively poor as a result of the perennial disasters of drought, famine and disease. There life continued to be austere for a time, but when the Spanish craving for noble titles spread to Minorca in the early seventeenth century, richer merchants began to marry into the local aristocracy, and from this time onwards the building of the palaces began.
Other notable palaces are the Martorell Palace of the Duke of Almenara Alta, that of the Baron of Lluriach (one of the oldest titles in the island), and the palace of the Marquis of Menas Albas. These have high-sounding names, and unfortunately their doors are closed. Most of them are characterised by great marble staircases, moulded ceilings and large carved double doors leading into drawing-rooms often furnished with Chippendale and Queen Anne furniture. Some have secluded courtyard gardens.
Today, thanks to the laws of Jaime II, a few large proprietors still own about half the island. In this respect little has changed since the Middle Ages, but it does not mean that the present big proprietors are the descendants of Alphonso's favourites. Only the Count of Torre Saura could count as such, his family name of Squella appearing in the records of the time. The present-day Minorcan aristocracy dates mainly from the nineteenth century.
 

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