TINA VISITS MARTELLO TOWERS IN FORMENTERA ISLAND

Tina Picotes in Formentera

Formentera is the smaller and more southerly island of the Pityusic Islands group (comprising Ibiza and Formentera, as well as various small islets), which belongs to the Balearic Islands. A local Ibizan variant of the Balearic dialect of the Catalan language is spoken in Formentera. While the official languages are Catalan and Spanish, other major languages like English, Italian, German, French and Dutch can also be heard extensively in the summer due to mass tourism.

The island's name is usually said to derive from the Latin word frumentarium, meaning granary. The island had been occupied by the Carthaginians before passing to the ancient Romans. In succeeding centuries, it passed to the Visigoths, the Byzantines, the Vandals, and the Arabs. In 1109 it was the targets of a devastating attack by the Norwegian king Sigurd I at the head of the Norwegian Crusade. The island was conquered by the Catalans, added to the Crown of Aragon and later became part of the medieval Kingdom of Majorca.

More information: Consell Insular de Formentera

The main island of Formentera is 19 kilometres long and is located about 6 kilometres south of Ibiza in the Mediterranean Sea. More specifically Formentera is part of the delimitation of the Balearic Sea which is a northwestern element of the Mediterranean Sea. Its major villages are Sant Francesc Xavier, Sant Ferran de ses Roques, El Pilar de la Mola and La Savina.

Formentera has a population of 9,962 as at 1 January 2010. Its land area is 83.24 square kilometres. It is subdivided into several civil parishes themselves subdivided into others.

Lighthouse of Barbaria

North of Formentera is the island of Espalmador surrounded by a few minor islets. Espalmador is a tombolo, separated from the main island of Formentera by a shallow sandbar, and during low tide, it is possible for one to wade between the two islands. This area is a popular stopping point for those in yachts heading between Ibiza and Formentera.

Ferries to Formentera operate from their own terminal in Ibiza port, with departures every half hour in high season on large fast catamarans. The journey takes approximately 30 minutes with 10 minutes each leaving Ibiza, crossing the sea, and arriving in Formentera past the isthmus to Espalmador.

MARTELLO TOWERS

Martello towers, sometimes known simply as Martellos, are small defensive forts that were built across the British Empire during the 19th century, from the time of the French Revolutionary Wars onwards. Most were coastal forts.

They stand up to 12 metres high with two floors and typically had a garrison of one officer and 15–25 men. Their round structure and thick walls of solid masonry made them resistant to cannon fire, while their height made them an ideal platform for a single heavy artillery piece, mounted on the flat roof and able to traverse, and hence fire over, a complete 360° circle. A few towers had moats or other batteries and works attached for extra defence.

The Martello towers were used during the first half of the 19th century, but became obsolete with the introduction of powerful rifled artillery. Many have survived to the present day, often preserved as historic monuments.

Martello towers were inspired by a round fortress, part of a larger Genoese defence system, at Mortella Point in Corsica. The designer was Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino and the tower was completed in 1565.

Tower of Garroveret

Since the 15th century, the Corsicans had built similar towers at strategic points around the island to protect coastal villages and shipping from North African pirates. The towers stood one or two storeys high and measured 12–15 m in diameter, with single doorway five metres off the ground that one could access only via a ladder which the occupants could remove.

Local villagers paid for the towers and watchmen, known as torregiani, who would signal the approach of unexpected ships by lighting a beacon fire on the tower's roof. The fire would alert the local defence forces to the threat. 

Although the pirate threat subsequently dwindled, the Genovese built a newer generation of circular towers, the Genoese towers that warded off later foreign invasions.

More information: The Official Tourism Portal of the Balearic Islands

 The Mediterranean Sea with its various branches, penetrating far into the great Continent, forms the largest gulf of the ocean, and, alternately narrowed by islands or projections of the land and expanding to considerable breadth, at once separates and connects the three divisions of the Old World. 

Theodor Mommsen