Repairing the west wall of the medieval castle of Santa Àgueda

The project

The land, on which the Santa Àgueda site is located, in the municipality of Ferreries, is located within zone 17, which is classified as a Nature Area of Special Interest (Área Naturaleza de Especial Interés - ANEI). It is a fortification that was built during the Muslim occupation of the island of Menorca. The castle walls have mostly been demolished and some of the towers have disappeared or only the ruins remain.

The project proposes to reconstruct a part of the north-facing wall of the central core of Santa Àgueda castle, located in the municipality of Ferreries.  It is a section measuring about 37 metres long where the wall has become dry and mortared on the outside with rough lime, and there is an imminent risk of collapse, or it has already fallen down. After a visual inspection of the site, irregularities have been detected and, therefore, immediate intervention is required to help maintain the stability and the current functioning of the site.

The proposal aims to solve the problems of a lack of stability of a section of the north wall. The plan is to pull down a small section that is in danger of collapsing, rebuild two sections of the wall that have already fallen and stabilise the rest that is still in good condition.

The fact that the wall where the work shall be done is located in a BIC declared area, which is also an ANEI zone, and where access to the worksite is difficult, means that we are obliged to work with a criteria of respect for the environment, sustainability and reusing the collapsed materials and, finally, under strict control by archaeologists, who will carry out a rigorous follow-up of the work to guarantee the correct processing of any possible findings of old materials and to monitor the work process.