Maó: the British century and the great harbour: a self-guided walk

By Alleytale

The British century and the great harbour

Britain took Menorca in 1708 for its harbour and ruled it for most of the 18th century, and the old town still carries the marks: sash and bow windows, a church that was Anglican for eighteen years, a mansion built on the English cemetery, a guardhouse for the garrison and a clock from England.

Coming soonApp StoreComing soonGoogle Play

The stops

1. 1Museu de Menorca

   The Museu de Menorca fills the old Franciscan convent of Sant Francesc, whose church and cloister were begun in 1719 and finished in 1792 on the site of a Gothic convent from 1459 that the Turkish attack of 1535 destroyed. After the Franciscans were forced out in 1835, the building served as a nautical school, a public library and a high school, among other uses, before it became the island's museum. Among its collections are the finds Margaret Murray dug up in the 1930s, which were recovered from Cambridge and brought here.

   

2. 2Carrer Isabel II

   Carrer Isabel II took shape in the 18th century as Maó's first development outside the town walls, lined with grand houses unlike those of earlier centuries. Look at the facades for details the Catalan Wikipedia calls typically English: sash windows and boínders, which are bow windows. Among its most important houses are the rector's house and the military government building, which the British knew as the governor's palace.

   

3. 3Església de Sant Antoni

   Sant Antoni began as a hermitage outside the town walls, documented in 1588, and the expansion of the 17th century swallowed it into the town. It was remodelled in 1790 in a neoclassical style, and today the old church is a venue for exhibitions and concerts. The procession on the saint's day used to end with a Moors-and-Christians celebration in which oranges and cabbages were thrown.

   

4. 4Sant Roc Gate

   Built around 1359, this gate is the only trace left of the wall that enclosed medieval Maó. It was restored after the Turkish sack of 1535, and once the town outgrew its defences, houses were built against it. It is Gothic in style, with two thick towers, and it was kept as a historic monument.

   

5. 5Església de Sant Josep

   The community of master builders, carpenters and similar tradesmen built this church in 1738, in a very simple style, with one nave and small chapels down each side. From 1764 to 1782 it was part of Anglican worship, and when Spain took the island back in 1802 it passed for good to Catholic worship.

   

6. 6Teatre Principal

   The Teatre Principal opened on 15 December 1829, twenty-seven years after Spain regained Menorca from Britain in 1802. Giovanni Palagi designed it to the Italian standards for opera of the 18th century, and it counts among the oldest opera houses in Spain. Every year it hosts an Opera Week of bel canto.

   

7. 7Ca n'Oliver

   The merchant Llorenç Oliver, who imported wheat from North Africa and colonial goods from Brazil, had this mansion built in 1802 on ground known as the English cemetery, because it had served as one under British rule. British rule, as the page tells it, opened trade routes to North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean for the island's merchants. Since 2015 the house has been an art and history centre, with rooms on Menorca's British legacy.

   

8. 8Església i claustre del Carme

   The Carmelites' church and its large cloister, with a cistern in the middle, were built over several decades and completed in 1808. After church property was confiscated in 1835 the cloister passed to the town, and it served as courts, a prison and a public school before it became a market. The market is still there, beside a music conservatory.

   

9. 9Old guardhouse

   The British garrison's permanent guardhouse went up in the 18th century, and a reform in 1782 gave it a room for councils of war and another for a prison. Francisco Fernández de Angulo designed it in the plain, French-inspired baroque of the town hall opposite, with carved weapons and military insignia. It later housed courts and a school, and the Municipal Museum of Mahón opened here in 1889.

   

10. 10Town hall of Maó

    A town hall has stood on this spot on the Plaça de la Conquesta since 1613, and its exterior and upper floor were redone in 1788 or 1789 to a design by the engineer Francisco Fernández de Angulo. The clock came from England in 1731, and a Menorcan tourist guide says it was the first clock on the island that was not a sundial. Inside are the Saló Noble and a gallery of illustrious Menorcans.

    

11. 11Església de Santa Maria

    Santa Maria was rebuilt between 1748 and 1772, under British rule, after the Barbarossa assault had badly damaged its Gothic predecessor and a lightning strike in the 18th century finished the job. Its great organ was built by the Swiss master Johann Kyburz and inaugurated in 1810; it stands 15 metres high and 9 wide. It came to Maó in wartime, and the rector, Gabriel Alenyà, got a pass signed aboard the British flagship Ville de Paris on 24 June 1809, addressed to the captains of the Royal Navy and to privateers.

    

12. 12Moll de Ponent

    The Moll de Ponent, where Maó's ferry terminal stands, runs beside one of the longest natural harbours in the world, 5 kilometres long and up to 900 metres wide. The British saw Menorca as a naval base, moved the capital here from Ciutadella, and in 1715 set up a Royal Navy dockyard on the far shore, opposite the town, which served as their principal Mediterranean base for much of the 18th century. A local gin, often mixed with lemonade into a drink called pomada, is counted among the legacies the British left.

    

Hear the full story as you walk, or create your own walk, in the Alleytale app.