The House

Along with calles d’Anunciavay and Sant Roc, calle Isabel II was one of the streets containing great merchant-owned town houses, to be established during the early nineteenth century, a time of prosperous, organised city growth.  The street’s name was changed from calle Sant Cristofal to mark the visit of Queen Isabel II to the island of Menorca in September 1860, during which time, contemporary records advise us that, she inspected the new fortress of La Mola, and listened to a concert on the famous organ of the Santa María church in Mahón.

The town wall of medieaval Mahón runs through the two properties, and one of the defence towers (belonging to the Town Hall) is adjacent to the rear of the buildings.  

During a period of English ownership of the island, calle Isabel II no 20 became the headquarters of the governor of Menorca, General Richard Kane, from 1772.  Situated on the opposite side of the road from numbers 15 and 17, the two buildings were at one time connected by a bridge over the road. The Governor’s Palace (previously known as the King’s House, and officially titled Palacio del Gobierno Militar d’Menorca) was the headquarters of the island’s military government.  

Calle Isabel II number 17 was in a state of sad disrepair when it was purchased by the Reynolds Foundation in 2001 and the adjoining property, number 15, was purchased in 2012.  Under the supervision of the architects Aldo and Nicolás Faedo, and using local craftsmen, the building has been reincorporated into one, as it would have been in the nineteenth century.

References: 1. History of Menorca, A Brief Summary : The Rev Fernando Marti  (translated, with adaptations for the English-speaking reader, by Bruce Laurie).  2. Minorca – an architectural guide – ed. Joan J. Gomila