Model of San Felipe Castle, a fortification built in the 16th century

Mahón, July 7, 2026

San Felipe Castle, designed by the Italian engineer Juan Bautista Calvi, was built in the 16th century at the entrance to the port of Mahón to protect Menorca from attacks by the Turkish fleet.

The fortress consisted of four bastions joined by four curtain walls, surrounded by a narrow, deep moat carved into the rock. In the 17th century, it was expanded by adding ravelins to the other side of the moat, and the complex was surrounded by a covered way, palisade, and glacis.

In the 18th century, during British rule of the island, British engineers further deepened and widened the fortifications, building new counterguards, ravelins, and lunettes around the old Spanish castle, with moats that connected at different levels, giving it the shape of an eight-pointed star.

Next to the castle grew the Arrabal district, which was used by French troops under Marshal Richelieu in 1756 to approach and storm it.

In 1782, Menorca was recovered by Spain, and King Charles III ordered its demolition. After four years of the third British occupation of Menorca, in 1802, by the Treaty of Amiens, Menorca definitively returned to Spanish hands. In 1805, the Castle of San Felipe was demolished again by order of Charles IV, leaving only the batteries to defend the port. Today, part of the exterior area and the underground galleries can be visited.

NOTE: Article published in the Popular Memory section of the Diario Menorca on July 5, 2026.