Megayachts wrestling for space in the French fishing port of St.-Tropez would find size to be of little concern in Mahón, on the Spanish island of Minorca.
Six kilometers (3.7 miles) long and as much as 30 meters (98 feet) deep, Mahón’s port is one of the world’s largest and deepest natural harbors. Captured by the British in 1708, it became a crucial military base during almost a century of occupation of the island (which, along with Ibiza, Mallorca and Formentera, compose the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean, off Spain’s eastern coast).
On Minorca, military history is hard to miss. Its landscape is dotted with castles, defensive forts, storage towers and Georgian-era townhouses.
Now, the remains of that military past, along with some old aristocratic palaces and derelict farmhouses, are being repurposed into luxuriously rustic hotels, private estates and even a world-class art center, all of which are turning this island of almost 700 square kilometers (270 square miles) and about 104,000 residents into a destination for travelers seeking tranquillity and star-studded skies.
Try Mahón’s port after 10 p.m. in the summer — the megayachts are dark, and the restaurants are closing.
