Ara Balears in English - UNESCO World Heritage Site

The street is mine. And the heritage, too

Cristina Ros — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 22:25:15 +0000

It is a way of governing: when a decision is made, any obstacle becomes a nuisance. Technical reports, warnings, recommendations from international bodies... All of this can wait or can be pushed aside. In Menorca, the viaduct built right next to the Rafal Rubí settlement is proof of this. The settlement is part of Talayotic Menorca, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The surrounding area is also part of the asset that must be protected. And yet, the Island Council, governed by the PP, pushed ahead regardless, and that infrastructure, which was halted by protests and heritage objections, is today a viaduct where cars, trucks, and motorcycles have been circulating for a few days now. UNESCO and ICOMOS had requested its demolition; the Ministry of Culture, too. None of the warnings have been heeded.

Cars are already invading the surroundings of Rafal Rubí, heritage of Talaiotic Menorca

David Marquès — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 22:24:08 +0000

The warnings have been of no use, nor the fear of losing the World Heritage recognition that UNESCO granted in 2023 to the valuable archaeological legacy of Menorca. The Popular Party government at the Island Council has disobeyed UNESCO and the Ministry of Culture and has gone straight ahead with the construction of the viaduct over the prehistoric navetas of Rafal Rubí, one of the sites included in the universal candidacy. Instead of demolishing the structure, as was demanded of it, it has maintained it and has traced over the viaduct the new section of the main road between Maó and Alaior. A policy of *fait accompli*.

The Serra, a cultural landscape in danger

Jaume Mateu Lladó — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 18:50:59 +0000

The declaration of the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range as a World Heritage Site in the cultural landscape category was a participatory, open, and cross-cutting process that served as a tribute to the legacy of our ancestors. For Mallorca, inscription on the renowned UNESCO list meant joining the most prestigious international ranking in the field of heritage conservation. And not for a single heritage element, but for an entire landscape, one of the most extensive declared as such up to 2011; and moreover, a cultural landscape, that is, a whole territory where, thanks to human transformation, new values have been sculpted, making it even more unique and more worthy of protection. This designation also allowed for further protection of the surrounding area, as demonstrated by the declassification of the Es Guix urban development, in the heart of the Tramuntana, which was upheld in court because it was located within an area inscribed on the World Heritage List.