Josep Florit has spent 41 years working at the Consell Insular de Menorca, and has been one of the two Heritage Service supervisors for 21 years. A lover of Menorca's countryside, and with an innate curiosity, he knows every inch of our island. A year before he retires, he explains the experience of Talayotic Menorca on the ground.
What does your work as a Heritage supervisor involve?
Out of all the archaeological sites in Menorca, more than a thousand of them, 53 are covered by an agreement between the Consell and the local authorities to guarantee their maintenance. Not all of them are publicly owned. And so one of our tasks is to make sure they are properly maintained: check that the signs are in good condition, give the word if the vegetation has grown too much, if there is any dirt or act of vandalism… We report on what's there. There are two of us performing this job, and we split the territory of Menorca between us.
When someone applies for permission to lay a road or build a property development, we conduct an initial survey, and depending on what we find, an archaeologist will then pay an inspection visit. We also position any recorded traces on the ground. We note down anything connected with heritage, not just the Talayotic monuments: shelters, water tanks, wells, farmyards… to make sure people know it's there. We have an archive with more than 100,000 photographs of all these things.
On occasion, we also survey areas where there is little documentation, and the suspicion is that there could be valuable remains. This task has served to uncover a fair few previously undiscovered sites, such as some nave-type structures I discovered a short while ago near to the Ferreries chapel. We also recently found an unknown Talayotic cave in the Ciutadella region, and a few years ago, even a new talayot in Binillobet. We keep finding new things, and in fact in all these years I still haven't seen all of the Talayotic sites that there are in Menorca. Some are very difficult to get to.
And with your considerable experience on the ground, what do you see as Talayotic Menorca's main strength for inclusion on the World Heritage List?
For me one of the most important things is the quantity of sites that Menorca has, some of them highly distinctive, in such a small territory. I used to think that there was nothing in the northern region, but that's not true. My colleague, who was worked there more, has found plenty of traces. There is so much that the quantity itself is exceptional.
How would you say the perception of Talayotic heritage on the part of the general population has changed over all these years?
It is given much more prominence today. People have always said that in Menorca we look after our island. When the Consell begins cleaning up the sites, that gives visibility to a series of spaces, and there has been a boom ever since the Talayotic Menorca submission was launched. The whole thing has taken on a previously unseen dimension.
There were some sites where you never used to see anyone, but now there are visitors all around, such as at Torrellafuda, for example. I mean that people pick up the guides, the information, and set out exploring. There has also been a big increase in curiosity among the local population of Menorca. Everyone is in the countryside, everyone heads out, and so there are many more people visiting the heritage.
And how do you think that being awarded World Heritage status could change things?
I think that most people in Menorca expect a World Heritage declaration, although if that doesn't happen, it wouldn't undermine its importance. But it would be a very important step for international recognition.
Given your experience as a supervisor, how do you see the balance between heritage conservation and tourism?
I think that without tourism, there will be no heritage conservation. It takes a lot of money. One of the things we are short of in Menorca is the excavation of talayots, because it's very costly. Striking a balance is another matter, but without tourism there's no money. What we need is to get more visitors to come outside of high season.
You know many unfamiliar places. If you had to choose one particularly spectacular site, which would it be?
Well, for example, the Es Tudons or Torre Vella settlements are fantastic, but you can't visit them. There are really spectacular burial complexes, such as Sa Serola, with around 15 Talayotic caves that are very difficult to access, right on the coast. And of those which are open to the public, my favourite is Na Comerma de Sa Garita.