History

MAHÓN

History:

Historical overview of Mahón (1)

According to ancient authors, the Carthaginians founded the city of Mahón/Mahón around the 3rd century BC, called Magó in those times. From the archaeological remains found, we know that around the Plaza del Ayuntamiento and the old neighborhood "des Pont des Castell" (Plaza de la Conquista and Alfonso III Street) there was a talayotic settlement, where they buried their dead in artificial caves excavated in the barranco between this area and the church of El Carmen, in the current descent to the port via the Rochina park. This small nucleus was taken by the Romans when they conquered the island around the year 123 BC.

Mahón/Mahón became a small but prosperous commercial city due to Menorca's location within the Mediterranean. In the year 74 of our era, Emperor Vespasian raised the city to the dignity of a municipality, with the name of Municipium Flavium Magontaum. According to a document from that period, in the year 417, an active Jewish community in Mahón/Mahón was Christianized by Severus, Bishop of Lamo. From the Muslim period (904-1287), we know that the city as such had disappeared and that in its place there was a castle that defended the port.

Alfonso III of Aragon ordered the construction of a city on the site of the ancient Magó, with the name of Mahón/Mahón when he took the island from the Muslims. With the change in the Mediterranean political situation towards the 16th century, the port of Mahón/Mahón regained a certain importance. The Turks assaulted the city around 1535, and in 1554 the construction of the Castle of San Felipe began on the southern shore of the mouth of the port, a construction that for two and a half centuries was key in the history of Menorca.

The island was occupied by the British following the War of Succession, who configured the current Mahón/Mahón. The port became a commercial center of great importance as a place for the distribution of goods. As a result, the city became the capital of the island, replacing Ciutadella as such, given that it was the residence of the governor, the reason for which the courts were moved.

At the end of the 18th century, Mahón/Mahón was a commercial city that had about fifteen thousand inhabitants. When the island passed to Spanish sovereignty in 1802, that situation changed radically, especially after the decree of 1820, which prohibited the free trade of wheat and legumes, a situation that left the city in a period of stagnation and decay. Towards the middle of the century, there was an economic rebirth, with the introduction of industry and the recovery of commercial activity.

The construction of the "La Mola" fortress, with a military prison that would become famous. The presence on the island of a large garrison turns

Mahón/Mahón into a military city. During the Civil War (1936-1939), the island remained within republican territory. For this reason, the surroundings of Mahón/Mahón were bombed by the Italian aviation, allies of the nationalist side. Once the trauma of the war was overcome, the city saw the industrial resurgence of the late 1950s and the birth of the current tourist boom.

(1) In the year 2006, the local city council approved the change of the official name and in Catalan of the city of Mahón; it became Maó. However, it was specified that in Spanish, the denomination Mahón would remain correct. It is for this reason that in many press articles, it is usual to see Maó/Mahón when referring to the capital of the island of Menorca.