Alaior on paper: book titles to help you get to know the town

Springtime is famous for being the season of flowers. And it’s the same when it comes to books. With the large amount of documentation that we are lucky to have about our town, thousands of words have been written about its history, roots and customs, and also about prominent personalities who confirm that Alaior is a hotbed of culture.

This month, we would like to introduce you to the most interesting publications about Alaior or those written by people who have lived in our town. This is because we have lots of anecdotes, details and idiosyncrasies to tell you. However, for those of you who would like to delve a little deeper into a specific aspect of our town, here is a list of reading material to enjoy at home... or maybe even lying on the sandy beach at Son Bou at sunset.

To understand the Talayotic past better

In recent years, the Consell Insular de Menorca (Island Council) has published several books on the island's key archaeological sites. In the collection, called Sitjot, two books help us to discover two outstanding settlements on the island which are located on the borders of our municipality.

One book is Torre d’en Galmés, el control del territorio en la Menorca prehistórica (Torre d’en Galmés, territorial control in prehistoric Menorca). This is a publication in which up to four authors, experts and participants in the excavations that have been carried out at this magnificent site, offer their global insight into how the inhabitants of Torre d'en Galmés lived. It is an essential reference book if you are interested in learning about the island's prehistory and love history and archaeology.

The second book in this collection focuses on another of Alaior's most remarkable settlements: Torralba d'en Salort. Also written by two archaeologists, it describes the exceptional characteristics of the taula enclosure in great detail, one of the best preserved on the island.

To find out more about its history

There are several books written about the history, traditions and life of Alaior. Many of these publications come from the Centre d’Estudis Locals of Alaior (Centre for Local Studies), a socio-cultural entity that works to disseminate and protect the culture and history of the municipality. It is from this entity that books on all kinds of subjects have been published, ranging from a compilation of articles on the Civil War and the post-war period to accounts of traditional trades or emblematic places, such as the church of Santa Eulàlia. If you are interested in history in detail and are looking for extra information, take a look at the publications they have on their website.

However, if you are looking for something more contemporary, the book Alaior: Unas miradas de historia (Alaior: Glimpses of history) has just been published now, in 2022. This work, written by Miquel Àngel Limón, who holds a doctorate in journalism and is from Alaior, focuses on fifteen stories from the 17th to the 20th centuries, as the perfect way to close a study of the documentary collections of the Alaior Municipal Historical Archive.

To discover Alaior and Menorca in a poetic sense

There are many ways of getting to know Alaior better, but the vision of a poet will always give us a much greater and more ethereal dimension than what history books can tell. In this sense, one of the great Menorcan authors - and a self-proclaimed lover of his hometown, Alaior - is Ponç Pons. His works have been translated into languages such as English, German and Chinese.

With an extensive bibliography to choose from, Pons' collections of poems are full of references to his native land and to the landscapes that he connects with in his own life, such as Son Bou and Cala en Porter. Without a doubt, this is a very sensitive way of discovering Alaior and Menorca.