Minorca’s history is marked by the different phases of foreign rule, making it the most complex of all the Balearic archipelago and the port of Maó is a faithful reflection of this past. Here we can find the remains of San Felipe Castle, La Mola Fort and the former hospital of El Llatzeret, which all bear witness to another period.

San Felipe Castle, designed by the Italian engineer Gianbattista Calvi, is located on the south bank of the entrance to the port of Maó. It was built in the mid 16th Century at Felipe II’s orders, after the attack by Barba Roja (“Red Beard”). It was a castle with four bastions surrounded by a deep, narrow moat excavated in the stone. The English conquered it in 1708 and when the Treaty of Utrecht was signed in 1713, they extended it and equipped it to give it an even greater defensive capacity. Rising up next to the castle was the Arrabal, a district which was used by the French troops in 1756 to take the castle by storm. The French rule lasted only a few brief years, as in 1763 the island passed back into the hands of the English until 1781.

In 1782 the castle once again played a leading role in Minorca’s history during the Spanish siege, which enabled them to recover the island after more than half a century in the hands of foreigners. Carlos III ordered its demolition and all that remains of it today are ruins, although its silhouette can still be perfectly seen from the air. As well as the remains of the walls, you can also visit its tunnels and a battery of 18th Century cannons.
 
A large part of the stones originating from what had once been San Felipe Castle were used to build the wall which surrounds El Llatzeret, a former hospital for cholera patients on the island of Llatzeret. Today it is run by the Ministry of Health and houses a curious museum of medicine which, among other things, exhibits the first electrocardiogram machine used in Europe as well as a replica of the boat which Isabel II used on her visit to Minorca to inaugurate La Mola Fort in 1852.

La Mola Fort, which would later become a military prison, lies at the most easterly point in Spain. It is a very well-conserved defensive fortress, with a polygonal façade and a labyrinth-like system of moats, bunkers and galleries. Until 1968 its tunnels housed the most feared military prison in Spanish territory. It has a battery of 38.1 cm cannons which was fired for the last time in 1912.

Part of Admiral Nelson’s memoirs which he wrote during his stay in Minorca have, as their setting, this port which has had to withstand so many invasions and armies throughout the course of its history.

To visit San Felipe Castle, you need to make an appointment by calling +(34) 971 362 100.

To get to the island of Llatzeret, you have to take a small boat which leaves from the port of Maó. To visit the former hospital only on reservation, telephone +(34) 971 362 587.

There are only guided visits around La Mola Fort and these take place at the following times: from November to May, on Sundays at 11 a.m.; in June, on Tuesdays at 6 p.m. and on Sundays at 10 a.m.; in October, on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. and on Sundays at 10 a.m.; and from July to September, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 p.m. and on Sundays at 10 a.m.

Length: 2´45 min.

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