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Culture
En Quart Tower
The municipality of Ciudadela is home to one of the most characteristic defence buildings on the island: En Quart Tower. This 14th century tower was one of the town's defences against pirate raids. When it was no longer used for this purpose, annexes were added to it, making it a rare variant of Menorcan architecture, a group of buildings with towers.
The tower was granted by King Alfonso III of Aragon, conqueror of the island, to Father Bernardo Quart. The Quart family obtained the privilege of knighthood in 1579 through Juan Quart, and maintained it until the end of the 17th century. Due to the lack of male descendants, Margarita Quart was the last of the lineage and the tower passed on to the Olives family, who were later named Counts of Torre Saura.
It is a large square building with large buttresses and slopes on each side extending to the top.
It consists of a square ground floor and several intermediate floors used to store grain. The building was topped with a terrace from which the people known as "torrers" or "torreros" were in charge of keeping watch from the tower's battlements, which protruded from the corners and were rounded in the centre.
One of the attached buildings has a portico supported by semi-circular arches and three segmental arches at the front.