The port of Maó, sheltered by a long and deep history

PalmMahón's harbor is the largest natural harbor in the world after Pearl Harbor. Its nearly 6 km length and maximum depth of 30 meters attest to this. It lies at the foot of a city built atop a hill. From the cliffside promenade, there is a panoramic view of the surrounding area, from Colàrsega to Punta de Sant Felip.It is Mahón, a beautiful and elegant city"," affirms a most solemn hymn, written in 1904 on the occasion of the visit of King Alfonso XIII, which its inhabitants now sing with satisfaction at the beginning of the Gràcia festivities, the first week of September. And it makes perfect sense. Today, Maó is, for many, the most cosmopolitan city on the island of Menorca. We find the English heritage present, a result of its rule during much of the 18th century. But, a couple of millennia earlier, in Roman times, the Portus Magonis It was ground zero for an economic activity that spurred the city's development, Magonawhich finally received the status of municipality with the title of Flavium Magontanum MunicipalityHowever, Ciutadella had been the island's capital from the beginning. Everything changed in February 1722, by order of the renowned British governor Richard Kane. Under the pretext of disagreements with the mayor-general, he moved the courts, and therefore the capital, from Ciutadella to Mahón, a city he beautified and whose urban expansion he regulated. A century later, the port of Mahón hosted the first overseas US military base, from 1825 to 1845.

The itinerary we present here aims to guide you in discovering the historical and heritage treasures of a part of the city and its port. Today, we explore the inland area, from Mahón to Colársega; next week, we'll cover the harbor entrance, Cala Sant Esteve, and the Sant Felip fortress. We don't provide specific times, only elevation changes and maximum altitude, because this is meant to be a leisurely stroll, a chance to fully appreciate the experience. This initiative, a collaboration between the newspaper ARA Baleares and the Balearic Islands Port Authority, was written and guided by Fita a Fita, with the goal of highlighting the ongoing interplay between land and sea through the Balearic Islands' main ports.

The route

[00 min] We begin the walk in the Plaza de la Constitución, where most of the city's public events take place, such as the fuss of the patron saint festivities and the numerous fairs scheduled throughout the year. We find ourselves at the confluence of Sant Roc, Isabel II, and Alfons III streets. To the east is the Maó Town Hall, built in the 17th century and renovated in 1789, according to the design of the engineer Francisco Fernández de Angulo. To the right of the Town Hall is the Church of Santa María, built in the 18th century on the site of an older medieval church, damaged during the sack of Maó in 1535. Finally, behind us, to the west, is the Main Guard Post, built during the British occupation of the island to house Angulo at the end of the 18th century.

To see the sea and the port, we head along Carrer de Alfons III towards the Castell Bridge viewpoint, overlooking the Les Voltes coast. Below us lies the Baixamar promenade. After the Catalan-Aragonese conquest in 1287, Maó was fortified, and a castle was built on the very spot where we now stand. We can trace the boundaries of the medieval city from the Sant Roc gate along Carrer del Bastió to Les Voltes, along the Deià and l'Arrevaleta coast, where we will end our current route. On the way to the viewpoint, we will have crossed Plaça de la Conquista, with the 1950 monument to Alfonso III of Aragon, a work by Frederic Marès Deulovol, on our right; and, on the left, Can Mercadal, an 18th-century building that has housed a cultural center, public library, and municipal archive since the mid-20th century.

Having caught our first glimpse of the port, we headed towards it. We continued our walk towards Plaça d'Espanya on our right and took the steps we found on our left at the very beginning of the walk, surrounded by the gardens of Parc Rochina. We descended to the port along the Les Voltes promenade, built in the late 1940s to replace the old marina ramps, the natural outlet to the port from the Freginal ravine. This winding and beautifully adorned avenue was popularly known as Gilda's Coast, because its construction coincided with the release of the 1946 film starring Rita Hayworth. "There has never been a woman like Gilda," proclaimed the poster of the time, and no coast like Les Voltes, the people of Maó would have thought. Finally, at the end of the promenade, stands the monument to those lost at sea, which replaced the Cross of Saint Peter, erected in memory of an old fishermen's guild chapel located on this very spot.

Hermitage of San Juan de los Vergers

We turn left onto the Baixamar promenade towards Colàrsega. We are in the oldest port and industrial area of Mahón. We pass by La Eléctrica Mahonesa, dating back to 1892, now a shop. souvenirsAnd shortly after, below the Piques coast, we find the 18th-century Hort Nou cottage, a reminder of the port promenade's renovation commissioned by the 14th Count of Cifuentes. The promenade ends at Colàrsega, the innermost point of the port. We continue towards the Fornells road and, following the lower path to Sant Joan on our left, we reach the hermitage of the same name. The path crosses the Vergers de Sant Joan, an irrigated area created from the 1713 drainage of the Colàrsega wetlands, one of the many projects undertaken by Governor Richard Kane. The hermitage of Sant Joan de los Vergers was built between the 14th and 15th centuries. Tradition says that King Alfonso III ordered Mass to be celebrated here when he landed in Menorca to conquer the island from the Muslims in January 1287.

We return to Mahón via the Dalt de Sant Joan road. Upon reaching the town, we turn left onto Carrer de Fornells. Suddenly, we gain a high vantage point overlooking the port. To the left, we find the old Hort Nou gardens, which we enter to reach the 18th-century Church of Sant Francesc, home to the Museum of Menorca. We continue along Carrer Isabel II to the Governor's House. A few meters before, on the right, Carrer del Rector Mort leads us to the 14th-century Sant Roc gate and Plaça del Bastió. From here, we begin a short walk along the old moat of the medieval wall—as described from the viewpoint at the Castell bridge—to Plaça de la Constitució, the end of our route.