Lazareto

Monuments | Maó - Mahón

In the late 18th century the Spanish government decided to build a large lazaretto in the port of Maó. The site chosen was a peninsula near La Mola, opposite the town of Es Castell. The building on went on for several years, and in the end only half the project was actually executed. Even so, the Lazaretto of Maó is one of the largest quarantine installations still preserved in Europe. It became operational in 1817, and for a century served hundreds of boats which came from other ports and may have brought infected people or merchandise which had to go into quarantine. The current lazaretto replaced another previous one located on a nearby islet, Isla Plana, which no longer exists. The Lazaretto peninsula became an island too, when the so-called Alfonso XIII canal was dug out in 1900, to guarantee the sea traffic from the fortress of La Mola during storms. The most striking construction is the double wall that surrounds the lazaretto itself, with its watchtowers, different blocks and warehouses, the isolated areas where the diseased were concentrated, the small circular chapel dedicated to Saint Sebastian and the cemetery. Today ‘El Llatzeret’ is a residence managed by the Ministry of Health. To reach the island you have to take the pleasure boat that leaves from Calasfonts, in Es Castell, or by means of one of the residence’s own boats, which has to be requested in advance. The building has a medicine museum containing one of the first cardiographs ever to exist and different buildings with curious objects inside them, such as a replica of the boat used by Queen Isabell II when she went to Menorca to inaugurate the fortress of La Mola.