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The Island Council of Menorca’s plan to go ahead with the construction of a two-level overpass at Rafal Rubí is turning into an international scandal. The Ministry of Culture has had to intervene, the Director of the Menorca Talaiòtica Agency has resigned, and so has the main UNESCO consultant who made the declaration possible. It is evident that things are not being handled well.
A political, not technical, solution
Along Menorca’s main road, different alternatives have been applied to ensure safe intersections and side entrances. There is no single solution, as shown by the level-access entry to the Camí d’Ets Alocs, the entrance and exit to the Son Sintes quarries (also at level, with constant truck traffic), or the Naveta des Tudons (the most visited monument by tourists and with heavy bus traffic).
It is also clear that there are alternatives to a two-level overpass, as seen in the solutions recently proposed by the Council for the section from the airport road to Alcaidusset. The intersection with the road to the airport is designed as a roundabout at the same level as the main road. For people traveling to or from Talatí, a level-access side loop is drawn.
All these interventions have been made on the main road. The current claim that at Alcaidús only a two-level solution is possible, involving raising the road by 5 meters when just 1 km away is the Argentina overpass, can only be understood as the result of political interference by the governing team.
UNESCO demands removal of the overpass
When the first proposal for the Menorca Talaiòtica World Heritage designation was submitted to UNESCO, it included a mapped list of archaeological monuments. UNESCO responded that the proposal should be reworked so that the monuments were not isolated points, but instead connected to their surroundings and the surrounding landscape. This led to the creation of Cultural Components—territorial units connecting different sites.
In the case of Rafal Rubí, Component 6 stretches southward and includes sites like Torrellissar, So na Caçana, Biniedrís, and others. The area where the half-built overpass stands is also part of the World Heritage zone (see attached illustration at the end).
The UNESCO process coincided with the beginning of construction of the Rafal Rubí overpass, which was halted following the 2015 elections. When assessing the compatibility of completing the works with the preservation of the landscape around Menorca Talaiòtica heritage sites, UNESCO was clear. The final report states:
Removing at the earliest opportunity the partially completed road works in Component C6 and the electrical poles and lines in the landscape areas between different archaeological sites that have a negative influence on the landscape views,
In other words, remove as soon as possible the partially completed roadworks in Component C6 and the electrical poles and lines in the landscape areas between archaeological sites that negatively impact the views.
Menorcan groups call for impact to be avoided
Several civic organizations wrote to the Island Council requesting this matter be addressed in the Social Council of Menorca Talaiòtica. The Culture Councillor took nine months to convene it—and only once all decisions had already been made.
The organizations wrote to UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and the Ministry of Culture (the formal liaison to UNESCO, as the organization deals directly with States).
Signatories included: the College of Architects, the College of Archaeologists, the Ateneu de Maó, GOB, the Friends of the Museum Association, the Federation of Residents’ Associations, the Scientific Council of the IME, the Third Sector Forum, and the Teachers’ Union.
The Minister of Culture has written to the President of the Island Council asking them to wait for UNESCO’s opinion, but the Council has decided to move forward and tender the works.
Modification of the Territorial Plan seeks to reduce protection of these areas
Rafal Rubí is at the intersection of private interests where tourist and leisure activities are being combined by various companies led by individuals with strong political ties.
This situation is also acknowledged in the project that has been released for public consultation, which incorporates a public domain area on the north side in case a vehicle parking area is needed in the future for visiting the navetas:
Disponibilidad de una zona de dominio público en el lado norte para, si se requiere en un futuro, poder ubicar una zona de estacionamiento de vehículos para potenciar las visitas a las navetas. Esta zona ahora se deja en su estado natural, pero si fuera necesario se podría acondicionar para permitir el estacionamiento de algunos vehículos y/o autobuses.
Adapting the road to fit private interests should be paid for by the promoters—not by the public. 6.5 million euros of public money to be invested in an intersection that should be privately funded is a significant amount.
To add to this, in the proposed modification of the Territorial Plan currently being worked on by the island’s governing team, some specific protections for the Menorca Talaiòtica zones are being removed.
For example, the text of article 92.5) has been deleted. It stated:
Velar de modo especialmente cuidadoso por la integración en el paisaje de los bienes culturales, en particular, de los componentes de la candidatura de Menorca Talayótica a la Lista del Patrimonio Mundial, garantizando la salvaguarda de la configuración morfológica y las condiciones de visibilidad de sus entornos como atributos del bien,
[“To ensure, with particular care, the integration of cultural assets into the landscape, especially the components of the Menorca Talayótica nomination to the World Heritage List, guaranteeing the safeguarding of the morphological configuration and the visibility conditions of their surroundings as attributes of the property.”]
Article 99.3) has been blurred into ambiguous wording., it stated:
Salvaguardar, en particular, los valores y la integridad de los entornos paisajísticos de los monumentos y yacimientos de la cultura talayótica de Menorca, en especial de los atributos del bien seriado Menorca Talayótica y de los componentes que lo integran,
[“To safeguard, in particular, the values and the integrity of the landscape settings of the monuments and archaeological sites of the Talayotic culture of Menorca, especially the attributes of the serial property Menorca Talayótica and its component parts.”]
We must ask ourselves: what is the motivation behind weakening the landscape protection of places recognized as World Heritage?
