With a dramatic and violent history, Ciutadella is worth a visit at the beginning stages of the trek.
An attractive city, it's Menorca's 2nd largest, with Baroque and Gothic architecture and a trading port important in the Middle Ages. Menorca itself is only 22% the size of Mallorca and today has 95,000 residents.
Founded by the Carthaginians in the 4th century, it was governed by the Moors and recaptured by Aragon (eventually becoming part of Spain). There is a 19th c obelisk in the main Plaza d'es Born in memory of the "year of disaster" in 1558 when the 3,452 townspeople were completely overcome by the Turkish Armada and taken as slaves to Constantinople.
Trekking across the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean one feels how its remoteness would have created indefensible towns in earlier times. But today the islands are beautifully maintained with mainly European visitors engaged in the global economy, the remoteness overcome by technology.
