Ibiza‘s Independent Streak
There is nothing new in that Ibiza attracts people from all over Europe. Over the last 3000 years Ibiza has been part of various civilisations:
8 centuries Phoenician,
4 centuries Roman,
3 centuries Arab,
and finally, 8 centuries Catalan-Spanish, including the last 60 years an international invasion by mainly European tourism and the accompanying work-force immigrating from Spain, Latin-America and the Maghreb.
Each civilisation has left its own mark on the island (Bronze Age tools, Phoenician necropolis burial site, Roman walls, Arabic irrigation systems, English and French food). However, the independent spirit, local culture and autonomy of the Isla Blanca (White Island) have survived throughout. Catalan is the official language of Ibiza since 1983 with Ibicenco alive as regional dialect. In spite of mass tourism, which puts the island on the crossroads of cultures, its traditions have not disappeared. The traditional peasant dance ball pagès, and other folklore and catholic festivities are still honoured on Ibiza, showing a strong communal solidarity on the island, as compared to other regions of Spain.
Antiquity: Phoenicians and Romans
Many centuries before Paris and London even existed as towns, Ibiza was already an important trading centre within the seaborne Phoenician empire and its later successor Carthaginian (or Punic) empire. Even earlier 4000-year-old traces of Bronze Age farmers have been found. But the Phoenicians founded Ibiza, over 2600 years ago. Ibiza thus was one of the earliest towns in Europe.
From the Phoenician name Ibosim, Romans derived Ebusus, which led to Ibiza or Eivissa in Catalan. Greeks, who explored the area but did not settle, introduced the Pityuses as name for Ibiza and neighbouring Formentara, meaning ‘pine-covered islands’.
The remains of the oldest Phoenician settlement can be seen at Sa Caleta beach. Ibiza also possesses a unique Phoenician burial grounds. Therefore, the world's largest collection of Phoenician artefacts can be seen in the museum at Puig des Molins in Ibiza Town.
In 123 BC Romans arrived at Ibiza ‘s shores while defeating the local pirates and they brought all the Balearic Islands into the Roman fold. Ibicencos however negotiated a favorable treaty with the Romans, which spared Ibiza from a destructive invasion and allowed it to continue its Carthaginian-Punic institutions and traditions. Ibiza’s old town, Dalt Vila (=Upper Town) still witnesses 3 basic layers of the successive Phoenician/ Roman, Arab and Catalan architecture:
1) Limestone and yellow clay mortar remains of Phoenician (4th-2nd Centuries BC) and Roman (1st Century BC) dwellings: one can see these walls in the preserved subsoil of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Ibiza
2) Some of the oldest part of the thick fortification walls you can still see today were built as part of the Almudaina, the seat of Moorish power (10th-13th Century, see Ibiza’s small Madina Yabisa museum)
3) Spanish Renaissance fortification walls and towers, Europe’s best remaining examples, built by engineer Calvi on order of the Habsburg king Philippe II in the 16th century (see for instance, the main entrance gate Portal Ses Taules).
In similar fashion, Ibiza’s cathedral is built by Catalans (14th-15th century) on top of former mosque which in turn was built on the site of an earlier Phoenician and Roman temple. Dalt Vila and some other portions of the island are registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites and thus protected from development and commercialization.
Early Middle Ages under Islamic Rule
After the fall of the Western Roman empire, from 5th to 9th century Ibiza was invaded by Vandals, Arabs, Crusaders and occupied by Byzantines, but often kept a degree of its autonomy as it did under the Romans. Ibiza’s old city appears to have been abandoned 5th-6th Century AC.
In 902 Berbers led by Abd al Rahman III conquered the island and Ibiza became part of the Moorish Al-Andalus (Arab-Berber) Caliphate based in Cordoba. Berbers settled on the island and locals converted to Islam. Thanks to the advanced Moorish-Arab culture, Ibiza regained its economic prosperity as it had enjoyed under the Roman empire. Ibiza trade and commerce flourished. Ibiza became again a prosperous port and market city with fortified walls under Muslim rule.
When the Caliphate split up in competing kingdoms, Ibiza was conquered by the Taifa of Denia in 1014. Culture was advanced on the island at this time, Ibiza’s Al-Sabbini became poet laureate at the Muslim court in Denia.
The characteristic modest Ibicenco casament, being a functional and minimalist farmer’s house, is an enduring legacy of the Arab period (Ethnographic museum in Sta Eularia is an example). Two 20th century architects Erwin Bronner and Joseph Lluis Sert (followers of Le Corbusier) were influenced by and promoted the typical Ibiza finca style: whitewashed, cuboid farmer’s houses, with sabina beams and dry-stone walls.
Catalan Christian Conquest and Self-governance of Eivissa
Moorish Ibiza was conquered in 1235 by a small army led by 3 knights under the banner of the King of Aragon (part of the Reconquista of all of Spain). This invasion had already a cosmopolitan flavour. The leader of the invasion, an Aragonese nobleman Guillem de Montgrí, pulled resources with two knights of royal lineage – Pedro count of Urgel (a Portugese prince) and Nuño Count of Rosellon (today’s France). Legend has it that Ibiza’s impenetrable high walled Dalt Vila was only captured due to a tip-off about a secret tunnel by the brother of the Islamic ruler, who had been snubbed over a mistress.
The Muslim population was deported by the invading Catalans. Catalans colonized and repopulated the island. Their descendants still are often the largest landowners on the island. An interesting fact is that customary when inheritances had to be divided, the valuable agricultural inner land was given to the sons, while the “worthless” seaside land was given to the daughters. The Catalan Conquest implanted a culture that has endured, also with immigration from Catalunya at first, and other regions of Spain later. Aragon became part of Spain at the end of the 15th Century. A degree of self-government was granted to islanders with tax exemptions and a licence to sell salt.
Ibiza and Formentera Islands were divided into 4 parts (according to troops provided by each knight, 1 part for the king). This became the basis of administrative Ibiza. Even Salinas and Dalt Vila everything was divided in 4 parts (quartons). Government of the island resided in Universidad de Ibiza (building across form the Cathedral). Ibiza self-government was maintained for 5 centuries until 1715, when Madrid abolished the island’s autonomy. The island was impoverished already by that time. Since the return of democracy in Spain in the 1970s, Ibiza is governed again by its own Council within the autonomous region of the Balearic Islands.
A contemporary metamorphose took place during the 2nd half of the 20th century. The island had been known as a place of freedom and independence during Franco’s regime. However, its international fun, music, clubbing as well as tolerant reputation was established from the 1960s onwards (in particular with the opening of Ibiza airport in 1958), when artists, musicians, gays and Vietnam war draft dodgers, descended on the island.
Pirates
Already around 200 BC Cilician pirates used Ibiza as their base, until they were chased by the Romans. During the Middle Ages, Ibiza pirates were again feared along the busy shipping lanes of the Mediterranean. Ibiza itself was also besieged by incursions of Berber pirates (who came from nearby North Africa). This lasted from the 13th century, when the Moors were ousted from the island, up until the early 19th century. The Turkish or Berber xebec sailing boats arrived in surprise attacks, taking everything they could, from food to animals, and even the Ibicencos themselves, who often ended up in Oriental slave markets.
This sense of permanent danger ultimately affected the architecture and traditions of the island. As a defence against the North African pirate attacks, a series of atalayas, defence towers were built to warn of attacks. The towers around the island served as a communication network as well as refuge. When a pirate schooner about to disembark, would be spotted, the nearest tower was lit, which would signal for the next to be lit and so on, to warn the islanders to hide their goods and women. Formentera was once depopulated by such pirates, with all the inhabitants being sold into slavery.
The towers proved quite an effective defence method. But also, some Ibiza fishermen changed profession and became their own pirates or corsairs. They formed a kind of band of vigilante pirates to guard the island by sea. The Ibiza buccaneers crossed the Mediterranean under patents of corso, granted by the Spanish Crown. This gave a license to stalk any vessel or enemy port, in exchange for a large part of the booty.
The most famous Ibiza Corsair was Antonio Riquer Arabi, who defeated more than a hundred enemy ships around 1800s. His house is now the hotel El Corsario. Some of the best houses in Ibiza were built for these pirates/corsairs. A monument in honour of these privateers and their captain was erected in the old port of Ibiza, the only known pirate statue in the world.
Salt - The Island’s Ancient Economy
Ibiza’s principal natural resource for centuries was the 'White Gold' – a smooth marine salt. The Salinas are the coastal lagoons already exploited by the Phoenicians, and developed further by the Arabs, to extract salt. The rather ecological activity is allowed even though the area is a protected Natural Reserve today. These salt pans win salt from sea water. Through a process of evaporation, aided by a system of canals a salt crystal is produced with a low rate of mineral elements. For centuries salt has been the most lucrative business on the island. Although for the labourers, extracting the salt was very hard work, especially taking place in the summer months, under the threat of pirates, as well as malaria (mosquitos breed in marshes).
These workers created their own church at St Francesc d’Estany (=St Francis of the Salt Pans). Property of the salt fields changed hands from the Crown to the state-owned company Salinera Espanola in 1871.
Furthermore, the island had produced, since antiquity: dye, fish sauce, fruits, wine and wood, and even mercenaries (to Roman, Spanish or Turkish forces). In Ibiza town still exists a small area of wetlands, called Ses Feixes that was cultivated with an irrigation system also since the time of the Phoenicians. Today Ibiza’s agriculture produces almonds, pine nuts, figs, carbos and some wine.
After Columbus discovered America, the importance of Mediterranean trade routes diminished and as a result Ibiza prosperity declined. When Ibiza was rediscovered by the ‘flower power’ era hippies, the island’s inhabitants were mostly subsistence farmers and fishermen. The tourist boom since the 1970s saved the economy of the white island.
Note from the editor: many thanks to the author Paulus, himself a fan of Ibiza having built some magnificent houses on the white island.
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