The charm of derelict places

 

 

 

The ruined oratory of a large country house near Sant Lluis.

Water

 

Since ancient times water has been a problem in Menorca. The Mediterranean climate alternates rainy seasons with persistent droughts and since prehistoric times, man has had to manage to get his supply of water for consumption and irrigation.

 

 

Most of the Talayotic villages are in the southern zone, where it is easier to get water. 

The ease of obtaining water in a dry and rocky terrain such as our island, has configured the human settlement in Menorca. The vast majority of settlements are in the southern area where it is easier to get it.

Cave used since the ancient times to store water.

Ruins of the Church of Sant Joan de Carbonell. This town, located close to the road to Fornells, was abandoned during the 19th century due to the lack of water on the ground.

Some types of artifact to extract water.

Sant Joan d'es Vergers.

According to the Menorcan Chronicle, King Alfonso III, after a bloody battle against the Muslims, let his army to rest in a place called Pla des Vergers, only a few miles from the Hotel, and ordered two masses to be sung: one in honor of the Virgin Mary as symbol of the new era begins for the island within the Christianity and the other one for the souls of the killed in battle. Over time, a chapel to San Juan Bautista would be built in this place. This was built in the 14th or 15th centuries, since the construction system corresponds to the Levantine Gothic. 

 

 In the middle of the 16th century there was a brotherhood of San Juan in Mahón that annually organized a parade to the chapel to celebrate the Baptist festival. This was held until well into the 19th century.

The little church has undergone many reforms throughout the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. According to Archduke Lluís Salvador, the current church is the result of a restoration in 1712. It is a small building, with a single nave covered with a simple ribbed vault and divided into two sections by an ogival arch. It does not have side chapels and the vault discharges on two exterior buttresses. The interior decoration is very sober. The 19th century façade is a body added to the nave with a slightly pointed arch that gives access to a small portico covered with a pointed vault. This is topped with a belfry. On the access portal there is a small window with the openwork Maltese cross.

I hope this could also be the beginning of something new and the end of this pandemic that would be left behind.

Restoration of paintings in the vaults of Santa Maria

It has been hard work but the restoration of the paintings of the largest church in Mahón is already finished.

The Church of Santa Maria Mahon, was built between 1748 and 1772 on the site of a thirteenth-century Gothic church. The interior is neo-Gothic style, with a single vaulted nave, has many side chapels dedicated to different saints. Outside we find a very simple decor, with a bell tower and the door that opens onto a small enclosed space.

It has an impressive organ built in 1810 by masters Francisco Otter and Joan Kiburz from Barcelona. It´s 15 meters high and 9 meters wide. It has four keyboards and 3006 pipes sound (197 are made of wood and the remaining of metal).

All pictures by Andreu Murillo.

San Clemente

San Clemente, or Sant Climent as we call it in menorquin is a traditional village Close to Mahón.

A group of farms and country houses have been located here since the very old times. In fact most of the farms in the area have names of Arab origin so probably they were already here 800 years ago.

The current church, built in 1889, replaced an earlier one, from the 17th century, and occupies a centralizing place in the village center.

The Wind Star in front of the old British arsenal

 The MSY Wind Star is a motor sailing yacht, sailing as a cruise ship for Windstar Cruises. She is one of an unusual class of only three vessels (msy Wind Star,msy Wind Spirit, and msy Wind Song), designed as a modern cruise ship but carrying an elaborate system of computer-controlled sails on four masts.

More than 300 years ago a naval base was built in Mahon harbour to meet the needs of the British navy. Many of the buildings that once were the old arsenal are today part of a Spanish Navy base which is not open to the public but it can be seen and viewed from many points in Mahon town, or from the Yellow Catamarans which do the harbour trips every day.

There is also an artificial island called Isla Pinto, filled by the British in 1768 from an island, giving it its present form. Among other stories, more than fifteen ships were built there between 1786 and 1798. It was an area used to clean the bottom of the ships of the Dutch and British fleets from before 1708, as one of the safest places and sheltered port of Mahon.

 The old arsenal today.

 Pinto Island in 1870

Pinto Island today

Holly Week in Menorca. When the islanders express their devotion.

Although I am not a particularly religious person, I can not ignore the feeling of huge hurt and compassion shown in the processions of Holy Week in any town in Spain.

In Menorca, many people take part in the processions, either as Nazarenes, wearing their long tunics and hidden faces, or as part of the brotherhoods of centurions (representing the Roman soldiers who executed Jesus), or as components of the bands of drums and sacred music that accompanies them. 

 Our Lady of Solitude is one of the best-known and most widely-followed images in the town. 

The large group of brotherhoods, with their images, is really overwhelming.

All the pictures today, by Javier Coll.

Festes de Gracia 2015

The fiestas, which honour the Virgen de Gràcia, take place on the 7th and 8th September. 

The ringing of church bells starts the fiestas off at 4 PM on the 7th, and then all the riders gather together and parade through the streets until they reach the chapel of Gracia where they stop to pray. 

 Picture by J. Carreras

Then they make their way to the square in front of the Town Hall, where they hold the jaleo which is truly spectacular and thoroughly enjoyed by locals and visitors alike.

There is another jaleo on the morning of the 8th, followed by horse-racing down the long and straight street Cos de Gracia in the afternoon. It is really exciting and vibrant.

Click for a video of the Jaleo 2015 

It has become fashionable over the last few years to ask a famous celebrity to open the fiestas officially alongside the mayoress of the city from the balcony of the Town Hall overlooking the square. This happens on the night of the 6th and then everyone sings a song together which is dedicated to the city.

Sa Cova dels Jurats.

After a summer storm in the morning and taking advantage of the peaceful afternoon, I have returned to Cales Coves today.

The archaeological site of Calescoves, located in the creek of the same name,
is made up of a Proto-historic burial place, a ritual well, and a defensive seaside settlement, and was an anchorage site from IV century BC to the Late Roman period. Some cuts in the stone have also been identified, conceivably used to situate the votive sculptures that sailors used to offer when they arrived at the anchorage. 

Finally, it is highlighted the presence of a cave, known as Cova dels Jurats or l’Esglesia (The Church) that was a cave shrine from the Late Talayotic culture to III century AD. Some epigraphic inscriptions —most of them engravings, others paintings— are located in a natural shelter, just at the main access to the cave, provide evidence of the celebration of the Parilia, a festivity dated the 21 April, the same day on which Rome celebrated its foundation. Presumably also celebrations related to the agricultural seasons took place here.

some Roman inscriptions

     The carved rocks which according to archaeologist investigations were worked to place votive sculptures on them.

The Royal Leicestershire. 17th. Regiment of Foot.

The troublous days that marked the closing period of the reign of King James II saw the birth of The Royal Leicestershire Regiment.

 On July 11, 1725, the regiment embarked for Minorca, arriving by the 14^th of August. The regiment remained on duty at the island until 1749, lending aid to the garrison of Gibraltar during its siege in 1727. 

Richard Montgomery irish-born soldier who served in the British Army. When the American Revolutionary War broke out, Montgomery took up the Revolutionary cause, and was elected to the New York Provincial Congress in May 1775

In 1732, Whightman’s mustered 19 officers, 4 staff, 30 sergeants, 30 corporals, 20 drummers and 441 private men. By virtue of a Royal Warrant for June 12th, 1739, the regiment was augmented by ten men per company, bringing the establishment strength up by one hundred. Each company then consisted of three sergeants, three corporals, two drummers, and 70 privates. The regiment sailed for Ireland in 1749, landing at Cork on October 5th. From then until 1757, the regiment served at various duty posts throughout Ireland. On 1^st July, 1757, a Royal Warrant officially assigned the numerical designation “17” to the regiment.

 St. George Chapel at Leicester Cathedral

The chapel, enclosed by a carved wooden screen, was reconstructed in 1921 and contains memorials to the men of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment. All recorded and all remembered. 

 Website of the Museum of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment at Leicester. 

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Santa Maria Church, the famous organ and Lord Collingwood.

The Church of Santa Maria has organized a tour today so people can see the interior, often hidden, of this historical building.

Although the first church was built here in the Middle Ages, the building we see today dates from middle of 1700. Curiously, the largest religious buildings of the island were built at the time when Menorca was under British rule.The interior of the church is Neo-Gothic, with a nave with ribbed vaults; on the sides there are several chapels dedicated to various saints. The exterior is simple and austere, with a bell tower and a Gothic front door opening onto a small enclosed space.

Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries almost all parishes and convents of Menorca had an organ, which become an important reference in the Christian community. There were such instruments at the church of Sant Francesc, in Mahon, Menorca Cathedral in Ciutadella and others... however, the organ held at the church of Santa Maria in Mahon, had become outdated and, as cited some documents of the time, " was better to keep silent because it disturbs more than solemnizes ".

Soon the religious authorities decided to commission a new organ, whose construction involved two Swiss organists (Kyburz and Otter) who at that time were building in Barcelona, an organ for the church of Santa Maria del Pi.

The construction of the organ was completed in 1807, but his transport to Menorca was hampered by the course of the Napoleonic Wars, as the English squadron watched the movements of the French in the Mediterranean and often attacked the ships sailing the Mediterranean. The intervention of the British Admiral Lord Collingwood was necessary, so that finally the organ came to Mahon in 1809, but its opening was not performed until 30 September 1810.

The superb instrument, which is considered an exceptional work forboth its quality of sound and its mechanical accuracy, is 15 meters high and 9 wide, four keyboards and 3006 sound tubes, of which 197 are wood and the rest of them made in metal.

Summer Colours

Church at Es Migjorn Gran. 

Photographer: Roberto Di Toro

Wednesday 13th. Musica Reservata de Barcelona

A unique event for lovers of early music will take place next Wednesday in the Church of Santa Maria in Mahon.

 

Created in 1991 this early music ensemble was founded as a vocal group with the intention of introducing the repertoire of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, paying special attention to the Spanish composers of the Siglo de Oro. The absence of a permanent conductor has allowed Musica Reservata de Barcelona to work with renowned master specialists, such as Jean-Marc Andrieu, Bart Vandewege, Peter Phillips, Andrew Carwood, Bruno Turner, Josep Vila and Mireia Barrera.

 Clic for the full program

A unicorn gargoyle at the Menorca Cathedral.

A French legend that sprang up around the name of St. Romanus ("Romain") (AD 631–641), the former chancellor of the Merovigian king Clotaire II who was made Bishop of Rouen, relates how he delivered the country around Rouen from a monster called Gargouille. La Gargouille is said to have been the typical dragon with batlike wings, a long neck, and the ability to breathe fire from its mouth. There are multiple versions of the story, either that St. Romanus subdued the creature with a crucifix, or he captured the creature with the help of the only volunteer, a condemned man. In each, the monster is led back to Rouen  and burned, but its head and neck would not burn due to being tempered by its own fire breath. The head was then mounted on the walls of the newly built church to scare off evil spirits, and used for protection.

But to be fair, a gargoyle is in Architecture a carved or formed grotesque figure with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between. 

Many medieval cathedrals included gargoyles. Architects often used multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the flow of rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage from a rainstorm. A trough is cut in the back of the gargoyle and rainwater typically exits through the open mouth. Gargoyles are usually an elongated fantastic animal because the length of the gargoyle determines how far water is thrown from the wall.

The Seminary at Ciutadella.

The Theological College cloisters adjacent to the Church of “Socors”, makes up part of the old Augustine convent site which was built in the middle of the second half of the 17th Century. The round arches stand out from the structure, supported by quadrangular pilasters which surround the central part, and with a corridor covered by rib vaults with sculpted shields; over which another gallery runs, originally of similar characteristics, but currently enclosed by stained glass of a clearly Baroque style. The Augustine monks left the convent in 1835 and from 1858 the Diocesan Seminary has taken up residence, occupying the old convent facilities.

 One of the two terracota coloured baroque domes covering the two towers of the Seminary building.

Porch at "El Roser". Ciutadella.

The church of “el Roser” was the work of Joan Amorós (1664-1707) and was concluded in 1705 following the guidelines of an architectural style loosely connected to the Baroque. It was constructed on a site previously occupied by a small church of the same name. The building has a single nave, rib vault roof, with three chapels on each side, a dome covered transept and a semicircular apse. Its facade is particularly outstanding including a richly ornamented porch area, the upper region of the structure in no longer featuring the image of the “Mare de Déu del Roser” which is being restaured.