Na Beltrana

 

Another of the prehistoric religious sites called Taulas. This one in Ferreries. In a farm called Na Beltrana

Son Rotger.

Experts believe that there are 33 of these monuments from the Neolithic Era. It might be there were more but they were either destroyed or just they have not survived to this day.

In any case, I was determined to find this winter some of those that are not easily accessible and this is one of them.

Just before entering the town of Cala en Porter, by road with a gate entitled 'Sant Vicent' which leads to the farm of San Rotger can be seen. In the bush on the right side  lies a talayot (block piled tower). And on the eastern rocky foot of the talayot, a headless taula with scratches stands. Curiously, this taula does not stand on the rocky foot level but in a pit like a bathtub with other pillar stones.

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.

Cala d'es Pou d'en Caldes

 

 

One of the sections of Cami de Cavalls that best define the rich and varied environments that make up the island’s north coast. The itinerary starts at Cap de Favàritx, a space that is well known for its dark rocks and the scarcity of vegetation.

The course passes through typical Minorcan agricultural surroundings, formed of ploughed fields, fields for livestock to graze in and areas with Mediterranean bushes. As the path approaches the coast again, it reaches Pou d’en Caldes, a space with dense concentration of endemic plants.

 

 Arenal de Mongofre

Pou d'en Caldes

Mongofre Vell
 

The Shipwreck of "General Chanzy" 110 years ago.

One of the worst disasters ever to occur in Menorca, took place at 5 in the morning of February 9th 1910, during a tremendous storm with hurricane force winds and giant waves, when the luxury 2300 tonne French passenger/cargo steamship 'General Chanzy', en route from Marseille to Algiers, crashed into the cliffs close to Punta Nati on the northwest coast of Menorca. As she immediately began to sink her boilers exploded.

 The General Chanzy in the Harbour of Marseille

The scale of the disaster was only revealed at 8 in the morning on the Saturday 11th, some 48 hours after the accident, when the sole survivor 23 year old Marcel Baudez, presented himself to the farmhouse of Son Escudero asking for help. Within days the terrible truth would be known; 159 persons had lost their lives in this accident.

 The Cliffs at Punta Nati with rough sea.

The funerary monument in the Ciutadella Cemetery

 

 Load recovery works.

 The saddest job. Collecting of the copses that could be recovered.

Son Mercer de Baix. Naviforme settlement.

The settlement consists of a set of boat-shaped stone dwellings known as naviformes, which gave their name to a long Prehistoric period in the island’s history (1700-1400 B.C.). Seven dwellings have been identified in all, with two different types, five horseshoe-shaped and two square. Although most of them are small, the settlement is spectacular for the strategic position it ocupies overlooking the ravine of Son Fideu and for one of its buildings, the Cova des Moro. The settlers lived off the land around and in the ravine, which was also their route to the sea.

 The farm house at Son Mercer de Baix.

 The same farm house, in the 1940's

Cova d'es Moro

 Horseshoe-shaped dwelling

 The fertile land at the ravine of Son Fideu.

The Cova des Moro is the only known naviforme that still has its horizontal stone roof slabs in place, supported by three vertical pillars. The outer wall is very regular and built with very well-squared stones. The roof of this type of building would normally have been made of wood, mud and branches, which did not survive the passage of time. In this case, part of the roof has been preserved; it was restored in 2002 after collapsing in the late 1990s.
Excavation work carried out on the settlement unearthed a number of bronze items, now on display in the Museum of Menorca. They include a small ingot, fragments of slag, a chisel and a bracelet, showing that the people who lived here knew how to make bronze.

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.

Sa Torre Vella - The Old Tower.

I have always liked the old country houses of Menorca.
 
Built hundreds of years ago using the poor resources offered by the agricultural environment on the island. Many times the main element of its architecture is limestone rudimentary extracted from the rock of the soil. They saw times of good harvest and many others of misery and suffering, as can be deduced from the defensive elements that can be seen in some of them.

Photographed "Sa Torre Vella" in Alayor in 1987. It was still active but a holding that housed the old tower had deteriorated so much over the years that could barely be intuited and during the years that followed fell, like so many other farms of Menorca in the abandonment
 
Today, the Fontanille Group has restored the old houses and turned them into a select hotel away from the mundane noise where the charm of the old rural architecture can still be appreciated. Hundreds of years later.

Starlings

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are winter visitors in Menorca. We do not see any in the rest of the year, but since October til February or March there are thousands of them who reach the island covering the sky with forming flocks that become authentic clouds dancing capriciously especially late in the afternoon.

Picture taken by Barbara Salva near Son Bou.

Ses Aubertones

Ses Aubertones is the name of an old farmhouse which already appears named in some seventeen hundreds's maps.

Erodium reichardii is an endemism plant on the botanical family Geraniaceae that grows only in Mallorca and Menorca.

Nature claims its own

For many decades, in Algendar Canyon, a place of excessive beauty, there were some mills that took advantage of the flow of the small river to grind cereal.

People lived in that unusually fertile area and there were some inhabited houses and caves. Little remains of that time. Some properties have been rehabilitated as exclusive residential homes and some other areas have become orchards of fruit trees.

The mills, like the one in this picture have been lost in disuse and the land they one occupied has been slowly colonized again by Nature.

 

April

Bike riding through derelicted farms

The countryside in Menorca has languished for many years. Since agriculture stopped being a profitable business and many of the farms opted for extensive livestock. Cows, which produce milk with which a quality cheese is manufactured that is consumed on the island and exported to many places both in our country and abroad.

Many of these farms seem to be abandoned for the simple reason that no one lives in them and soon they become ruined buildings, away from the bustle of when they were inhabited by families of farmers.

Bellver Nou

 Biniparratxet

El Rio de la Plata

In the 1800s and early 1900s, some properties on the island were acquired by "Indianos": emigrants  from Menorca who, after making their fortune in distant places, returned to the island to live from their savings. On many occasions, as in this one, they put names on their properties that evoked those places to which they had emigrated.

Rio de la Plata is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay and Paraná Rivers on the Southeastern coastline of South America.

Sunset over Collingwood House

Picture by Jose Muñoz.

Son Rotger, Lloc Nou d'es Fasser

After many days of troubled weather, the sun finally shone again yesterday in Menorca.

 Agricultural farm of Son Rotger, near Torralbenc, Biniedris and Lloc Nou d'es Fasser. A very rich area in terms of relevant archaeological sites. 

Talayot at Lloc Nou d'es Fasser. In just two kilometers around there are at least 4 Taulas, the unkown meaning T shaped stone monuments, and many talayots and other remains. 

By So na Caçana

Barranc d'Algendar and the story of "Es Capitanet"

Barranc d'Algendar, in Ferreries.

 One of the nicest walking routes in Menorca.

Es Barranc d'Algendar is a wonderful place in the area of the south of Menorca. There are few legends and stories that are hidden among the majestic vegetation and cliffs. Stories of distant times, lost pirates, looting, mysterious animals, lovely ladies ... There are many topics and stories, but there is one that arouses a special interest: the story of Jaume Soler Adrover, popularly known as "Es Capitanet".

"Es capitanet" which is a diminutive of captain that was applied as a consequence of his short stature was a very peculiar person. Is is believed that he was born in Ibiza and in Majorca is where his military career started, he bravely fought in the Carlist Wars in Catalonia and after having made a small fortune he came to Menorca where he married a woman from Ciutadella and bought the farm called S'Aranjassa in Es Barranc d'Algendar.

 An old picture of S'aranjassa. Might be taken while "Es Capitanet" was still alive.

Those who knew him, say that over the years, he lost his mind and saw enemies where there was nobody, and so, sometimes he was seen fighting with his sword in the middle of a path against .. .no one.

This situation got worse with the years and even more after his wife passed away. Then, his extreme religiosity was added his undoubted belief in reencarnation and also in the witches that he claimed were watching him.

When he felt close to dying he did not want to make a will in favor of his distant relatives -the couple never had children-, nor did he want to give his belongings to the Church in case he returned from his grave, so he finally wrote a document in which he agreed the Bishopric of Menorca could use in the following 400 years his estates S'Aranjassa and Es Canalo, (which, incidentally, was another farm that he had won to another farmer playing cards in a stormy night), but the two farms had to remain under his name, so he could recover them in case he came back.

Es Canalo.

Jaume Soler "Es Capitanet" passed away in 1922, so the Bishopric of Menorca can use the farms but not sell them. Not in the next 304 years as he might come back to claim for them. Today, both properties are carrying out enviromental education activities for children and teenagers.

Tot-Lluc

Tot-Lluc is one of the oldest farms in Menorca. It probably dates from the 11th century, when Menorca was part of the Ummayad Caliphate, because when the island was conquered by King Jaime there was already an estate here with a variant of that name.

The facade has two unequal arches and a curious system of inverted tiles to collect rainwater and channel it to a cistern.

On the grounds of this farm there is a cave with prehistoric petroglyphs representing boats.
I have only seen them in photography, never in person, but if this magnificent time is maintained next week, I will try to dedicate a day to find that cave.

walking off the beaten tracks

Still very good weather, which invites to do long strolls.

Ses Coves Noves. A farm which appears already listed in an old 1722 British map of Menorca. So the house can be over 300 years.

Bindweed. "Corritjola Borda"

Hedge bindweed or bellbind (Calystegia sepium) with its pure white trumpet flowers is a familiar sight, choking plants in borders and twining around any plant shoot or cane.

According to an old Menorcan superstition if seeds of this plant are placed under the pillow we can have telltale dreams.