Minorca: The old limestone quarries

The almost only building material used in Minorca for centuries have been the local limestone, kwon as “marès”. The stone has only been substituted by cement in the XX century. In most farms in Southern Minorca, where limestone is easily found, you can see a quarry, just beside the farm house or any cowshed. The biggest quarries (“pedreres”) are located in the towns’ outskirts, as they have provided stone blocks for all kind of buildings for a long time. 

Some of the largest quarries have been worked for centuries, so that different techniques have been successively used, leaving their characteristics marks in the stone. Now, just a few of them continue in the business, and most people believe that they are an ethnological asset that needs to be protected. These handmade spaces, in the middle of a natural area, in most cases even enrich the landscape rather than deteriorate it.