ISLA DEL REY

The volunteer group continue to turn up every Sunday morning. Our numbers may vary from one week to another, but the enthusiasm and determination doesn’t wane. One of the biggest advantages of volunteering here is that there is no obligation involved, you just turn up when you can. Everyone goes to work where they choose, although you might get called upon to move a pile of chairs or clean and tidy a room when it is being prepared to open. Many new skills have been learned, such as how to drive a supermarket floor cleaner or mix cement! If that doesn’t appeal, there’s restoration of antique furniture or medicinal gardens needing care, and there is work in all the hospital rooms. Volunteers who are flexible and willing are welcomed with open arms. Those with skills at dusting are especially welcomed! Can you imagine the amount that accumulates each week on all the items on display inside a room of mares stone? During the winter, our numbers have benefitted from some new international volunteers. We have welcomed Ukrainian, Dutch, French and even an Australian who turns up when his young family allows him. It is one of the most international groups that I know of in Menorca.

Increasing numbers of visitors and activities

As most readers are no doubt aware, we have managed the restoration of this British Naval Hospital since 2004 through volunteers and donations. This is an amazing feat by anyone’s standards when you look at the enormity of the building. In the eighteenth century there were 1,200 beds for sick and injured military personnel and it was abandoned to its fate in the last century. Now, with Hauser & Wirth open on the island and attracting huge numbers of visitors, some 60,000 by last year’s figures, it is buzzing with activities and people all summer. We’ve had to double our efforts to take advantage of all the visitors to Hauser & Wirth. Initially, many are unaware of the story of the old hospital, but now there are more guided tours being offered, including some with a professional guide. The shop is kept open all morning as well.

After an initial opening for some excellent but lesser known artists, the gallery will close temporarily from the end of May to install new works of art. It will be open again on 17th June to the public for this season’s artist, Christina Quarles from Los Angeles. Her exhibition will run alongside the ‘After the Mediterranean’ Exhibition. The yellow catamaran provides transport throughout the day until late in the evening. We will be publishing on our website the visiting times with the different languages indicated, in the case of the English tours they are planned for Thursdays and Sundays. However, it’s definitely worth getting up a bit early on a Sunday morning to see the atmosphere when the volunteers are at work. You can come over on the 9.00am catamaran for a guided tour, and we then join together at 11.00 for some light refreshments so you will have an opportunity to meet and chat together.

New Projects

It’s not all been straightforward. We’ve been waiting since December of 2020 for the permission to install the ramp from the jetty and the lift. This project was already financed and ready to go, but bureaucracy moves very slowly here (as I’m quite sure many of you already know) despite the best and determined efforts from our President, General Luis Alejandre. We will get there in the end, but I believe the architect is currently completing a new project of the ramp for the fourth time! On the other hand, the first floor which tells the History of Mahón Harbour has progressed in leaps and bounds. It is now open to the public on the mornings when there are visits between 12.00 and 13.30 It is free to those who have been on the guided tour and 5 € if you just want to see upstairs. It is worth the visit upstairs for the views alone. You won’t be able to resist taking photos.

We are presently on a campaign to raise funds to reduce our debt to our wonderful builder, Conrado, who has stood by us unfailingly for all these years and even comes to work on Sundays as a volunteer. Any new work that involves spending money will be put on hold until we have managed to reduce our debt. We can only do what donations allow and that has always been the case for the Foundation.

Remembering the battleship Roma

As I write, some of our volunteers are in Sardinia meeting local authorities and remembering the sinking of the battleship Roma in World War II, nearly 80 years ago. The burnt and injured Italian sailors were brought to recover in our hospital on Isla del Rey. Just another example of the international use of the hospital over the centuries. Each year we organize an overseas visit to some site related to our history or in some way connected to Isla del Rey, and believe me, there are plenty of them around the world.

If you don’t yet know the island, then lose no more time in arranging a visit. If you do know it you will surely want to come back again and see the progress and the new exhibition in the art gallery. Book online with the yellow catamarans for the boat trip to the Isla del Rey. You can also book a tour through the “activities” on their website. Hope to see you soon!

https://www.islahospitalmenorca.org/ https://www.yellowcatamarans.com/en/kings-island https://www.hauserwirth.com/locations/25040-menorca/