S'Hostal quarries, Limestone quarry and museum in Ciutadella de Menorca, Spain.
S'Hostal is a marès limestone quarry complex 1 km from Ciutadella, made up of old manual quarries and two much larger modern ones. The old quarries form a small, irregular labyrinth of stone and vegetation; the modern pits, worked with circular saws from the second half of the 20th century, have straight vertical and horizontal cut marks and cubic geometry.
Stone extraction at s'Hostal started in the 19th century and supported local building traditions until closure in 1994. The long period of operation shows how important this resource was for the island's development.
The quarries host a botanical circuit of seven former extraction pits, each given over to a Menorcan plant community: wild olive, almond, olive and aromatic plants, cliff scrub, holm oak and carob, island endemics, and a Mediterranean vegetable garden. A medieval-style garden of medicinal plants surrounds a fountain in the pit called Pedrera de les Proes.
The site sits about a kilometer south of Ciutadella and is easy to reach by car or on foot. Wear sturdy shoes because the ground is uneven and some areas drop away steeply.
The old quarries were dug by hand following the vein of good stone, so the blocks were cut around the living rock and the spaces left behind form a maze of stone and vegetation. Líthica has added a botanical circuit of seven quarries devoted to Menorcan flora, from wild olive and carob to cliff plants and a Mediterranean vegetable garden.
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