Would you like to see how the island of Menorca has changed since the 19th century with the engravings of the Archduke Luis Salvador of Austria? Come into our time machine…
Looking at photographs and old prints is always a fascinating –and enlightening– way of spending a few hours. Menorca over two centuries is a project that consists of photographing the places illustrated in the engravings in Die Insel Menorca, the title of the two volumes devoted to Menorca in the work Die Balearen in Wort und Bild Geschildert (‘The Balearic Islands in words and in images’) by Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria (1847-1915). The aim is to compare the state of conservation of the island’s cultural heritage at the end of the nineteenth century with that of the present day and to study the evolution of its landscape. Can you find the differences?
Ciutadella de Menorca
Es Born. Ciutadella de Menorca.
Sant Tomás. Es Migjorn Gran.
Forma. Sant Lluís.
Rambla tower. S’Albufera des Grau Natural Park.
Lobsters boxes. Ciutadella de Menorca.
Sant Felipet Tower. Mahon harbour.
Torre d’en Galmés talaiotic village. Alaior.
Fornells harbour.
Torelló’s talaiot. Sant Climent.
S’Aranjassa. Es Mercadal.
Sant Llorenç hermitage. Alaior.
Ciutadella de Menorca.
Ses Truqueries. Ciutadella de Menorca.
Pinto island. Mahon harbour.
Es Mercadal
Es Castell
S’Enclusa
Montaña del Toro
Mahon harbour
Calesfonts. Es Castell.
Alaior from Camí d’en Kane
Cala Morell. Ciutadella de Menorca.
Binissaida. Es Castell.
Binissafúller. Sant Lluís.
Binibèquer Nou. Sant Lluís.
Es Mercadal’s cistern
Cala Alcalfar. Sant Lluís.
Santa Eulàlia’s church. Alaior.
Addaia’s port. Alaior.
Cala Pregonda’s reefs. Es Mercadal.
Original engraving taken from Die Balearen geschildert in Wort und Bild by Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria. Photograph taken by Lluc Julià.
See the map Menorca before and then in Google Maps
More information (in Catalan):
Menorca entre dos segles. L’illa de Menorca de l’arxiduc Lluís Salvador d’Àustria, avui.
Mètode núm. 58, Estiu 2008
Revista de Difusió de la Investigació de la Universitat de València.
Press (in Spanish):
La isla de entonces y la de ahora. Diari Menorca. 29 d’abril de 2006.
Una muestra compara la Menorca de mediados del siglo XIX con la actual. Ultima hora. 30 de abril de 2006.
THE AUTOR
Lluc Julià Fàbregues is an editorial graphic designer and editor of this website you are looking at. He started the project “Menorca over two centuries” as a result of the concern to create tools to become aware, in an attractive and understandable way, of the effect that man’s footprint produces on his own environment.