Walk

Located in the very middle of Menorca, Mercadal is a crossroads between the main towns on the island, a mandatory stopping point to learn about the quiet lifestyle and hospitality of the Menorcan people. A cheerful landscaped promenade, which runs parallel to the main road joining the "Molí des Racó" with the entrance roundabout to the town, welcomes the visitor. Before that, if the traveler arrives from Alaior or Mahón, their attention will have been drawn by the "Roca del Indio" (Indian Rock), which has a viewpoint on the roadside, and the old flour factory, where wheat is still ground today to make bread. It is one of the so-called "fire mills," as the mechanically driven mills were called, in contrast to the windmills. The Plaza is the center of the town's civic life, the meeting place for its inhabitants. Anciently, the roads leading to Alaior, Ferreries, Fornells, and the Cavalleria coast led out from it, forming the main streets of the town around which the rest of the houses were grouped. In the vicinity of the Plaza are the town hall buildings, on whose façade the coat of arms of the municipality has been preserved intact. From the Town Hall, a staircase rises to the parish of Saint Martin, a building constructed in the 17th century over the old hermitage. The temple, attached to the rectory, has four side chapels that converge, through pointed arches, into a simple barrel vault. Starting from the same center of the Plaza, towards Ferreries, we are in front of one of the most emblematic elements of the town, the cistern built by order of the British governor Richard Kane in 1735 in order to collect rainwater. Nowadays, there are still many people who go to the cistern on Saturday mornings to fill their pitchers and jugs, as the residents of the town did in the old days.