July 26, 2012

WATCHTOWER OF ES SAVINAR

THE PIRATE´S WATCHTOWER
(LA TORRE DEL PIRATA)
Immortalized in the famous novel written by Vicente Blasco Ibanez, this tower was the star buildings of the novel "los muertos mandan" "the dead command," set in rural Ibiza in the early twentieth century but also takes parts in the capital of Mallorca. The actual name of the tower is "des cap des Jueu" or "des Savinar".
It is located directly opposite the stunning islands of Es Vedra and Vedranell. Es vedrá reaches near the 400 meters high, and it´s said that has a great magnetic power. Definitely a special place, a mythical island where once the Father Palau, was a hermit there in his religious reflections. More recently is alleged to be the base of alien spacecraft. In any case with or without spacecrafts, these islets are very impressive.
This tower that once served as a watchtower against the enemies of the islands as the pirates, and from here the population was warned when the danger came near, to refuge and hide them in to the nearest defensive towers of the towns or to the fortresses churches. It enjoys a wide and impressive view because is located more than 200 meters in a stunning cliff in the Cap des des Jueu, quite close to the mythical "Atlantis" in one side and the cove of Cala D'hort in to the other. In 1753 the construction was completed and is now a place to be visited especially in the evenings where you stunning sunsets can be watched from here, also on days when visibility permits, the coast of the Iberian peninsula belong to the province of Alicante can be also easyly seen.

5 comments:

  1. Hello Vincente:)

    I am so glad I found your blog!I am going to visit Ibiza in just 2 days:)It will be my first time. But definetely not the last one. Most people go there to party and they don't explore. I want to explore as much as I can in 6 days. Thanks to your blog-i will know where to go:)A piece of advice from locals is the most precious:)
    Thank you:)

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  2. Hi Ania: Hope you´ll have a nice holidays. You are coming in a very hot weather time and we expect that for all the week. Enjoy Ibiza and all the best.

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  3. Vincente: Thank you for this information. I live in the U.S. and my mother's surname is Savinar. The family came from Russia at the beginning of the 20th century; however, the name Savinar is not found in Russia and I have been told it may be Sephardic. If the alternative name for the Torre es Savinar is "des cap des jueu," that might indicate the name, Savinar, is originally Sephardic and from Spain. Do you have any knowledge of how the tower came to be named "Savinar" and have you heard anything about the history of the tower or surrounding area that might indicate if the Savinars lived there? Thank you so much for your help. Jill Savinar Bergman Strasser

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  4. Hi Jill and thanks for visiting my blog. Regarding savinar in this case it refers to one of the most famous trees in Ibiza. The "Sabina", The pine is also famous but there are a lot in most of Europe but the "Savina" is a very autoctonous tree from the island which exists in Ibiza and Formentera but no in other Balearic island as Mallorca or Menorca, (it also exists in Sardinia for instance, and you can find them also in one of the Canary Islands called El Hierro). So in this case Savinar means a place where are a lot of savinas, and this is the case of the place where this tower was build, so you can find many "savinas" around the tower, so I think is where the name comes from. Hope this helps you. Lots regards from the ibiza.

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  5. Vincente: Thank you so much. I believe that this may mean that the family comes from an area where there were lots of these trees--like Ibiza. Very interesting. I hope to visit your beautiful Ibiza next autumn. Thanks, again.

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