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Culture
Alcalfar Tower
This is a typical watchtower built in Menorca between 1798 and 1802 to defend the island. Located in the municipality of San Luis, specifically on the cape of Punto del Morro in the village of Alcaufar, this fortified Mortello tower was the first of eleven built on the island.
As in the other examples, it is a sturdy, three-storey, truncated cone-shaped construction made of typical Balearic sandstone (marés) and covered with large blocks of stone.
The lower section contained a small storeroom used to store gunpowder, ammunition and supplies for the garrison, as well as a cistern. All of this was covered by a hemispherical dome that served as the roof of the middle floor. There was a door that gave access to this part of the tower, used as soldiers' quarters, by means of a retractable staircase. A spiral staircase was used to reach the upper platform, where the cannons were located. This part is somewhat different from the English towers, as it is bordered on the outside by a parapet and the space required for the cannons is offset from the axis of the tower.
Furthermore, a furnace for the so-called "red bullets" was located here, which were heated until red-hot and fired at the wooden ships to set them on fire from the inside.
Nowadays this historical monument has no use, although it was restored in 1994 and can be visited.