June, July and Mahón, the three best ports in the Mediterranean are. This saying, attributed to the Genoese admiral and politician Andrea Doria, synthesizes the virtues of the port of Mahon, which with its five kilometers in length is the second of natural origin in the world, only behind Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii. The exceptional dimensions of this roadstead, within which the Royal Navy fleet fits, have turned Menorca into a strategic island for the control of the Mediterranean, successively subjected by the Muslims, the kingdom of Aragon, England, France, again England, or Spain.
Another effect of this exceptional nature has been the development of a maritime culture that the people of Mahón try to preserve, with the llaüts, bots, gussis, tèquines and other wooden boats being the stars of their heritage, which is watched over by Amics de la Mar Port- Mao. For years, this association has been rescuing and storing old boats in the quarry d’en Robadones, in Camí Verd, Mahón, an old covered sandstone quarry, with great heights, whose monumental scale evokes that of the Ear of Dionysus in the theater Syracuse Roman.
If in Robadones the boats sleep waiting for their restoration, in Thalassa, the new space in Es Castell dedicated to this heritage, and open since spring, fifteen of them are on display already restored and repainted. Thalassa is also located in a rehabilitated sandstone quarry – S’Arraval Vella – and is a good example of what can be done with these quarries which, after providing material to build traditional Menorcan architecture, fell into disuse last century .
The intervention of the architect Joan Gomila has been measured and effective there: he has enabled a continuous space of about a thousand square meters, has regularized the pavement, has opened a tunnel that allows the entry of boats and provides light, and has contributed to establishing a route between two quarries, linked by a central open-air patio. The Es Castell Town Hall, which has promoted the work in collaboration with the Island Council and Amics de la Mar de Port-Maó, previously used this underground space as a rehearsal space for rock groups. Other quarries, in other Menorcan locations, have had second lives as recreational venues, auditoriums or private premises. This has the virtue of revitalizing a natural heritage and, at the same time, another maritime-cultural one. Two in one.
