Es Castell

Es Castell municipality
Plaza de la Explanada and Es Castell Town Hall
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Balearic Islands
Island:	Menorca
Coordinates	39 ° 53 '  N , 4 ° 17'  E Coordinates: 39 ° 53 '  N , 4 ° 17'  E
Height :	19  msnm
Area :	11.61 km²
Residents :	7,434 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	640.31 inhabitants / km²
Municipality number  ( INE ):	07064
Nearest airport :	Maó / Sant Lluís ( Aeroport de Menorca , 6 km )
administration
Official language :	Catalan , Castilian
Mayor :	Lluís Camps Pons ( PP )
Website :	www.aj-escastell.org
Location of the municipality
Menorca

Es Castell is a municipality in Menorca , Spain . It is located in the east of the island, at the entrance of the port of Maó and is the easternmost city of the island and Spain. The community has 7434 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019). The proportion of foreigners in 2006 was 16.1% (1,200), the proportion of German residents 0.6% (44).

Surname

The name Es Castell has been used officially since 1985, and the previous name Villacarlos is still partly in use.

The city has had a variety of names throughout its history:

• Castello Sant Felip
• s'Arrabal de Sant Felip
• La Rabal Nova
• Georgetown (1771, in honor of the English King George III )
• Real Villa San Carlos (1782, in honor of King Charles III of Spain )
• Villacarlos (until 1985)

history

The city takes its name from the Castell de San Felipe, near which the first district was founded. That fortress was built in response to the invasion of the Turkish army ; specifically, the Ottoman corsair and Kapudan Pasha Barbarossa attacked Maó in 1535 in retaliation for the conquest of Tunis by Charles V a few months earlier. However, the construction of the fortress was only ordered a few years later by Philip II , who at the time was administering his father's Spanish property. Finally in 1558 the fortifications of the castle were armed and attacks from the Ottoman side could be repulsed. This caused many people from the area to settle near the walls of the castle and to form a permanently inhabited place that grew over the years and was called s'Arrabal de Sant Felip.

In 1708 Maó , to which the place still belonged at that time, was conquered by the British. The Peace of Utrecht (1713) confirmed the membership of the British Empire. In the Seven Years' War the island was occupied by France in 1756, but returned to the British in the Peace of Paris in 1763 . During this second British rule over the island (1763–1782), the inhabitants of s'Arrabal de Sant Felip, which was still close to the castle walls, were expelled because the location of the place was a serious problem for the defense of the fortress. Because of this, the residents moved further away to a place called La Rabal Nova. The place was built according to a right-angled town plan, which left ample space in the center for weapons stores, which in turn were surrounded by barracks. The British also enlarged the fortress considerably.

However, French-Spanish troops conquered and destroyed the fortress in 1782, believing that they could later exchange the island with the British for Gibraltar .

During the third British control of the island (1798-1802) work began on rebuilding the castle and its bulwarks. However, the construction work was stopped when it became clear that Menorca would fall back to the Spanish. The British renamed the city from Sant Jordi , as it was called by its residents a few years earlier, in Georgetown . At that time the city separated from Maó and has enjoyed urban autonomy ever since.

Number of inhabitants
(source: INE )

year	1842	1877	1887	1900	1910	1920	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1981	1991	2001	2011
Residents	1,900	1,781	2,581	2,462	2,625	2,508	2,806	2,284	2.174	2,060	2,575	3,637	5,389	6,424	7,990

Festivals

Every year from July 24th to 26th, Es Castell celebrates the local festival in honor of San Jaume (Spanish: "Fiestas patronales de Sant Jaume", German: St. George - shown in the coat of arms). The focus of the festival is - typically for Menorca - the horse. At the so-called “Jaleo” the riders (Spanish / Catalan: Caixers) perform various artistic feats in the center of the city to folk music on their horses. The typical drink at the festivals is the pomada. The gin Xoriguer made in Menorca is served with lemonade in small plastic glasses.

Town twinning

Es Castell has a partnership with Jabalquinto in the Spanish province of Jaén .

Born in Es Castell

• Francisco Vallejo Pons (* 1982), chess player

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
2. ^ Ajuntament des Castell (Spanish), accessed on May 28, 2014

Web links

Commons : Es Castell  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ajuntament des Castell (municipality) (Catalan, Castilian, English)