HERITAGE

Ibiza provides an excellent example of the interaction between the marine and coastal ecosystems. With dense prairies of oceanic Posidonia (seagrass), an important endemic species found only in the Mediterranean basin, contain and support a diversity of marine life.
Ibiza preserves considerable evidence of its long history. The archaeological sites at Sa Caleta (settlement) and Puig des Molins (necropolis) testify to the important role played by the island in the Mediterranean economy in protohistory, particularly during the Phoenician-Carthaginian period. The fortified Upper Town (Dalt Vila) is an outstanding example of Renaissance military architecture; it had a profound influence on the development of fortifications in the Spanish settlements of the New World.

The Upper Town of Ibiza is an excellent example of a fortified acropolis which preserves in an exceptional way in its walls and in its urban fabric successive imprints of the earliest Phoenicians settlements and the Arab and Catalan periods through to the Renaissance bastions.
The long process of building the defensive walls has not destroyed the street pattern, but has incorporated them in the ultimate phase.

The intact 16th-century fortifications of Ibiza bear unique witness to the military architecture and engineering and the aesthetics of the Renaissance. This Italian-Spanish model was very influential, especially in the construction and fortification of towns in the New World. The evolution of Ibiza's shoreline is one of the best examples of the influence of Posidonia on the interaction of coastal and marine ecosystems.The Upper Town is the oldest area, which emerges like an acropolis standing on a headland facing the sea. Its architecture and physiognomy have not been changed since the fortifications were built in the 16th century, based on the military precepts of the Renaissance. The defensive walls and bastions have incorporated those which existed before, thus making it possible to study the stratigraphy of all fortifications.