The Formentera Language Advisory Service reports it has dedicated this year’s calendars to the parish subdivisions, or “vendes”, of Formentera. In addition to covering the fourteen municipal subdistricts that have constituted Formentera’s official “vendes” since 1983 (six in Sant Francesc, four in Sant Ferran and four in El Pilar de la Mola), the calendar features informational bubbles that trace the roots of this type of subparish, which was historically unique to Eivissa until its 18th-century exportation to Formentera amid repopulation efforts here.

Heritage and language policies councillor Raquel Guasch underscored the importance of “seizing every opportunity to spotlight aspects of our history and reality so they can be passed down across the generations with normalcy. The current push is just the latest instance of that.”

Islanders can read about how the term “venda” gradually became widespread, coming to describe particular territories and aspects of civil and ecclesiastic organisation, such as the tradition of blessing household porches with holy water and salt, a rite which was performed from one venda to the next.

Two thousand copies of the calendar have been printed and are available at public information points of the Consell de Formentera.

5 January 2021
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

A first dig at the new Sant Francesc Xavier cemetery is programmed as part of the Balearic government’s 2021-2022 Civil War Graves Action Plan — a plan approved 19 November by the regional technical commission on graves and disappeared persons, of which the Eivissa-Formentera Forum for Memory is a member. Local application of the CWGAP was at the centre of a presentation today by the island’s heritage chief, Raquel Guasch, and regional secretary of democratic heritage and good governance Jesús Jurado. The gathering also saw the attendance of Consell de Formentera deputy chair Ana Juan and historian Antoni Ferrer.

The potential number of victims and area of disinterment mean efforts at the new Sant Francesc cemetery are among the most sizeable of those currently envisioned. The plans were added to the third programme of exhumations after research by Antoni Ferrer determined 58 deaths had occurred between 1941 and 1942 at the local prison and highlighted three zones of the Sant Francesc cemetery where victims’ remains may lie.

Based on research and witness accounts, Ferrer’s report describes inhumane conditions at the insalubrious and overcrowded Formentera camp, where lack of food was widespread and frequently gave way to death by starvation.

Ferrer used previously overlooked documentary sources to calculate the exact number of deaths at the Formentera prison. Where peers had relied on archives from the civil registry and death records in the Sant Francesc Xavier parish, Ferrer enlisted the Consell de Formentera’s own files from the administrative office of the courts and local census documents, ultimately corroborating the deaths of 58 individuals.

Councillor Guasch praised the Balearic government for its “clear efforts to recover this chapter of our history and restore the dignity of victims”, adding that to do so was “a matter of basic importance if we aspire to be an advanced, civilised society and to heal long open wounds”. She also applauded the historical research of Mr Ferrer. The councillor asserted a similar undertaking was in order at the former prison, where it would be necessary to “restore dignity to the site and come to terms with this chapter of our past”.

Burial site
Ferrer explains that the new municipal cemetery’s 1940 opening came just months before the first documented death at the Formentera prison in April the following year. If direct accounts of prisoner burials remain elusive, Ferrer did uncover two corresponding secondary accounts pointing to two quadrants in the western part of the cemetery which were completed in 1938. Based on the documents consulted, Ferrer concludes that Catholic rites were observed for the burials, but says the historical record doesn’t permit knowledge of whether the graves were marked.

New details about the deceased aren’t the study’s only novelty: transcripts of the local census and processing data have made it possible for Ferrer to substantiate the presence of approximately 1,500 prisoners at the local prison.

Recent digs
Seventeen graves have been excavated across the Balearic Islands since 2014. Following efforts in Sant Joan (2014), Porreres (2016, 2020) and Sant Ferran (Formentera, 2017), the 2018 action plan dictated excavations at Alaró, Marratxí, Sencelles, Calvià, Ses Figueretes, Llucmajor, Santa Maria, Montuïri, Pou de s’Àguila (Llucmajor) and Pou de Son Lluís (Porreres). A subsequent 2019-2020 action plan brought additional operations at Son Coletes, Manacor, Bunyola, Coll d’Artà and Valldemossa. Follow-up efforts have been carried out at Sencelles, Porreres, Ses Figueretes, Pou de Son Lluís and Santa Maria.

29 December 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

The Formentera Heritage Department has partnered with editor Jaume Escandell Guasch to publish a Formentera-specific volume of a folk song repertory whose story stretches back to 1928, when Baltasar Samper i Ramon Morey put out the original Obra del Cançoner Popular de Catalunya (“Popular Catalan Songbook”).

After close-ups on Sant Josep de sa Talaia (dir: Isidor Marí) and Sant Antoni de Portmany (Cati Marí Serra), the third installation in the “Pine Islands Songbook—1928” series features Isidor Marí’s return to coordinating duties and turns the spotlight on Formentera.

Heritage councillor Raquel Guasch congratulated Cançoner’s authors on their “exhaustive cataloguing of island culture at its most essential” and asserted, “This brings us closer to our roots through popular hometown music”.

In addition to an extensive collection of song lyrics documented by Baltasar Samper on Formentera between 15 and 18 September 1928, the volume also contains musical annotations by the author as well as thirty original photos of interview subjects and sites which struck Samper as eye-catching.

The physical documentation produced by Samper’s original 1928 mission in the Pine Islands is today kept at the Biblioteca de Montserrat. The Catalan government’s CDCPT holds the documents in their digital format.

Volume 10 of the “Popular Catalan Songbook”, put out in 2000 by Abadia de Montserrat Publishing, included a limited selection of texts and photographs, but the current edition constitutes the first-ever exhaustive release of Samper’s collected research.

The Formentera edition of the “Pine Islands Songbook” cost approximately €3,500 to put together and will be available in book stores. As ever, the edition had the support of the Consell de Formentera, Consell d’Eivissa, the town councils of Eivissa and the Balearic government.

21 December 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

The Formentera Heritage Department reports that plans currently under review for museum-style displays at the dig site known as Cap de Barbaria II where archaeologists have worked since November.

Heritage councillor Raquel Guasch said operations at Cap de Barbaria II and “Cave 127” in La Mola started 2012, and revealed local government was looking into the archaeologists’ suggestion that Formentera mark the undertaking and showcase local history by fitting the site with informational displays.

The project springs from a partnership between Consell de Formentera and Cantabrian International Institute of Prehistoric Research (IIIPC) for R&D+i aimed at promoting local work on prehistoric archaeology. Researchers are studying the “archaeology of death” and the paleogenetics of Formentera’s prehistoric inhabitants compared with other western Mediterranean peoples of the Bronze Age.

“Incredibly successful” operation
Dr Pau Sureda, a leader of the research team and researcher for the High Council of Scientific Research’s Institute of Heritage Sciences, described the Cap de Barbaria II dig as “incredibly successful” and highlighted the full restoration of a naviform chamber, the southern entrance of the settlement and part of the surrounding wall. “Work has involved restoring and consolidating structures at the settlement, and continue to uncover valuable insight into what life was like for Formentera’s Bronze Age peoples”, said the archaeologist.

In the short term, the team hopes to continue restoration efforts and put the final touches on a plan to present findings in an on-site exhibit fully accessible to islanders.

On 20 November, the archaeologists gave an overview of recent efforts at a talk at Centre d’Esports Nàutics. The project has enjoyed additional collaboration from the Museu Arqueològic d’Eivissa i Formentera, Trasmapi, the Abel Matutes foundation and Sea Experience.

4 December 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera