MENORCA?S ARTS AND CRAFTS CENTRE. ART AND TRADITION

Museums | Es Mercadal

Menorca's Centro Artesanal is a meeting place for promoting both traditional and modern arts and crafts. A shop, temporary and audio-visual exhibitions and a range of different activities help local artisans garner recognition for their work. This centre was created to be a reference point in Menorcan arts and crafts and defend and promote them. It is a showcase for a wide array of ancient trades that are still being practised today, such as tapestry repairers, silversmiths and beekeepers, etc.. All of their products can be purchased at the shop on the premises. The Popular Crafts Show, a permanent exhibition, features the following elements: - Dry Stone Wall: Master Artisan Isaías Pons Florit. This technique is used to built walls exclusively with stones, without any type of mortar or cement. It has three main goals: . To protect vegetation and crops from the island's prevailing winds. . To remove stones from the land and roads to make tilling the soil easier. . To allow livestock to graze in rotation, since it divides up the countryside. This ancestral method is still in use today and it is estimated that 70,000 kilometres of dry stone wall can be found in the Menorcan countryside. - Stone Cattle Shelters: Master Artisan Isaías Pons Florit. Menorca's farmers built these rural structures with dry stone techniques to shelter pasturing livestock from inclement weather. - Wild Olive Tree Barriers: Master Artisan Miquel Gomila Salom. The Menorcan countryside abounds with wild olive trees and its hard wood was used by the island's farmers to build barriers to close off dry stone walls. Their main function is to keep cattle from wandering off. - Ceramics: Master Artisan Arturo Gener Fuster. One of the most common items in daily use in Menorcan life is fired clay. Items such as laundry tubs and water, milk or oil jugs are examples of the wide variety of popular clay pieces in use.