Puntos de Interés
Culture
Sant Felip Castle
Sant Felip Castle stood on the southern side of Mahón harbour for years. It was Emperor Charles V who ordered the construction of what was one of the first bastioned-style fortifications in Spain in 1554.
The fortress was intended to defend the island from the continuous attacks by Turkish ships sailing in the Mediterranean. In fact, the main trigger for its construction was the attack by the Ottoman pirate Red Beard.
Given the importance of this undertaking, workers came from all over the island to build the castle, from stonemasons to bricklayers and carpenters. All of them were supervised by Juan Bautista Calvi, a well-known Italian engineer, who designed a castle with four bastions linked by curtains, surrounded by a narrow, deep moat dug into the stone. Later, in the 17th century, it was extended by covering the curtains with ravelins on the other side of the moat, and the complex was surrounded by a covered walkway, stockades and glacis.
Later, in 1708, work began to extend the castle under British rule. The renovations focused on erecting new counterguards, ravelins and lunettes around the castle, as well as different moats that were joined at different levels. These renovations gave the castle its characteristic eight-pointed star shape and made it one of the largest fortresses of the time.
In 1802, after half a century of British rule, Menorca was recovered by the Kingdom of Spain and Charles IV ordered the castle to be demolished five years later, leaving only the batteries necessary to defend the port.
Today, just a few ruins of the monument remain, as well as its underground galleries, which can be visited thanks to the work carried out by the Consortium of the Military Museum of Menorca.