The residents of Sant Jordi reported this Wednesday the destruction of several heritage elements in the area for the construction of a new development of more than a hundred homes. According to what they explained, an excavator demolished two talayots, one of which would correspond to a shepherd's hut.

The group leader, Neus Barceló, asks for silence. The courtyard at 35 Nou Street in Manacor is packed. There is a rehearsal and only a few days left until one of the most important performances of the human tower season in Mallorca: the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the Al·lots de Llevant. A test run of a human tower intended for the square is being performed, and everyone needs maximum concentration.

Would you buy some talaiots? The real estate market in Pla de Mallorca continues to surprise: the estate called S’Hort de Sabor has been put up for sale, a plot of almost 64,000 square meters, 9 quarterades, which is part of the homonymous estate of Sabor. It is within the municipal district of Montuïri and very close to the well-known archaeological site of Son Forners.

After learning of the news of the sale of the Sabor talayots in Montuïri, different alarms have been raised regarding this archaeological heritage of great value, located a few meters from the well-known Son Fornés settlement. Thus, the voices consulted by ARA Balears, after publicizing the news last weekend, opt for achieving public ownership of the settlement.

In one of the flowerbeds of one of the accesses to one of the busiest motorways in Mallorca, the one to Palma airport, 55 years ago an entire post-Talayotic sanctuary was moved there. Buried forever under the second runway of Son Sant Joan airport, Son Oms was not a site formed by a single monument, but a large prehistoric complex, occupied and reused for centuries.

The keyboard chords of a version of Whitney Houston coming from the Hotel Mariant Park are mixed with the notes, at full volume, of Barbie Girl, a hit from the 90s coming from the surroundings of the Hotel Playamar. The August night is heavy and the hotel terraces are full of tourists looking for the promised entertainment. Right in the middle, immutable and eternal, oblivious to anachronism, remain the millenary stones of the Talayotic settlement of l’Illot.

There are many ways to explain how we have grown in the Balearic Islands. Mercè Pinya's report on archaeological heritage besieged, swallowed, or boxed in by construction shows one of the most explicit: we have come to disregard what we simultaneously declared an Asset of Cultural Interest. That is to say, heritage that, by definition, has a mandate for protection, including its surroundings.

The beginnings of humanity were marked by the Sun. People worked 'from sunrise to sunset' to earn a living, a word that derives from the Latin adjective 'diurnus' ('daily'). As they became sedentary, various ancient cultures set out to follow the movements of the king of the stars in order to organize themselves better. They did this by measuring their shadows with a stick stuck in the ground. In Greek, this stick would be known as a gnomon, from which comes the term 'gnomonics', the art of building sundials. Thus began the process of domesticating time. For us, that astronomical invention would arrive with the name of clock also from another Greek word, 'horológion' ('hour indicator').

The Almudaina Palace will reopen this Wednesday, July 29, after a comprehensive renovation of 2.57 million euros that transforms the visit to the monument and incorporates spaces that were previously closed to the public. To inaugurate the new route, admission will be free for three days, from July 29 to 31, until its capacity is reached.

The historic center of Palma is a Property of Cultural Interest (BIC). Entirely. And in addition to the smell of urine left by many quality tourists, who are often seen urinating in alleyways, there are specific and harmful actions against heritage. Hundreds. Among them, systematic graffiti. In some places, like the convent of Santa Magdalena, there are even signs reminding of its BIC status and encouraging people to behave and not continue painting there. It is truly important that the population understands that heritage must be respected.

A new digital platform allows the discovery of 50 emblematic spaces in Mallorca through videos, photographs, augmented reality, Street View, and virtual reconstructions. The project, Mallorca Digitalitzada i Realitat Augmentada, presented this Monday at Es Baluard, consists of an interactive website and an experimental application that collect a selection of heritage spaces and elements from the island chosen for their historical, cultural, landscape, and ethnological relevance.

They were venues of intense cultural activity and are currently closed, unused. While grandiose projects are announced, such as the transformation of the Gesa building into a major cultural infrastructure, spaces like the Assistència Palmesana, La Protectora, the Catalina Valls theater, the Balear theater, or the old Centre de Sa Nostra, all of them in Palma; the Sala Augusta in Maó; and the Dalt Vila Archaeological Museum, among others, are sleeping the sleep of the just, awaiting recovery.

The wreck of Fontanelles is now completely out of the sea. The extraction this Monday of the last large portion of the hull puts an end to four months of a delicate archaeological operation that will allow for the integral conservation of one of the best-preserved Roman ships in the western Mediterranean.

In March 2022, the Servera family, linked to the Drac de Portocristo caves, put the S'Hort des Correu estate, on the outskirts of Manacor, up for sale. This definitively ended a century-old relationship between the space and the town, and with one of the most curious myths of Sant Joan's night. Around those dates, more than four years ago, the Llull family, the last caretakers of the house, had already left El Correu three years prior, shortly before the pandemic. And with them, the tradition of the magic vimer, the tree capable of curing hernias, had disappeared, once a year, for children who passed naked through its branches at sunrise on the shortest night, always at 6:20 AM.

The sofrit pagès suffers like never before. Yes: it's a very bad pun. The situation of Pitiüsan gastronomy is also not good. Sofrit and other Ibizan specialities are drowning amidst an avalanche of pizzas, tacos, sushi, chicken tikka masala and spring rolls. Not to mention the competition from Michelin-starred restaurants, establishments by famous chefs and fast food franchises. It's an unequal fight. A quick search on Google Maps reveals the difference in forces: in the capital of the main Pitiüsa island alone, the search engine offers 23 Japanese restaurants, 16 Chinese restaurants, 24 restaurants classified as Italian cuisine, 21 pizza-only places, and 23 Mediterranean cuisine. There isn't a specific tab for local cuisine, but we must assume it's included in the 'Mediterranean cuisine' category. Without even going online, any Ibizan knows they will have plenty of options if they want to eat sushi or pizza, and practically none if they fancy a sofrit pagès, the main meat dish of traditional Ibizan cuisine.But the sofrit is no longer alone. Last week, the Academy of Balearic Islands Cuisine was presented to the public in an event at the Consell d’Eivissa; this organization, for the first time, has four members from the Pitiüsa Islands, three from Ibiza and one from Formentera. A kind of Pitiüsan resistance against culinary globalization. There was talk of "defending our own" and the "danger of extinction" of local cuisine. It is still relatively easy to find the famous fish stew (bullit de peix) on the menus of Pitiüsan beach restaurants – another matter is whether the fish used is truly Pitiüsan – alongside international cuisine dishes. It is much more difficult to find less popular preparations, such as sofrit and borrida de ratjada. The same applies to desserts; beyond flaó on some menus and perhaps greixonera, it will be almost impossible for you to find any other.

The Association for the Revitalization of Old Centers (ARCA) has reported that the Urban Planning Department of Palma has granted a demolition license for a unique house with a tower located at Carrer Costa de Saragossa, 19, in the Vileta neighborhood. The entity considers that the disappearance of the property would represent a new heritage loss for Palma and calls for the immediate provisional suspension of the license, in addition to the cataloging of the building.

The Museum of Mallorca received this Wednesday the portolan chart of Pere Rossell dated 1447, one of the most outstanding pieces of medieval Mallorcan cartography, which the Consell de Mallorca acquired in April from the Sotheby's auction house in London.

I like to hear the knife sharpener. I feel pleasure watching the pleasant women and the pleasant men selling black artichokes or borage cabbage. When I detect a sign with eighties typography that says ‘Bar Centro’ or ‘Bar Sport’, I stop to observe the hustle and bustle. But my knives are all from Ikea. I do all my shopping at the supermarket (fresh produce included). And it's very difficult for me to drink a coffee that is torrefied and without oat milk. I am a hypocrite.

After announcing their brief return, Ossifar has released a new song, I Don't Like Reggaeton, which can now be heard on digital platforms. The track is the result of this reunion with the public and was presented this past Wednesday at El Corte Inglés, where the group also announced that on May 30th they will have a meet-and-greet with fans, including a signing and photo session.

The Urban Planning Department of the Palma City Council has granted a permit this Tuesday to demolish the building located at number 27 on 31 de Diciembre street, a construction designed by the architect Gaspar Bennàssar, with the condition of preserving the facade. The action will allow for the construction of a new multi-family building with a total of 15 homes, as well as parking spaces and storage rooms.