Ciutadella Vacations, Ciutadella Vacation Reviews, Tourism Guide

Ciutadella Vacation Guide

Ciutadella de Menorca (official) or just Ciutadella (common) (Spanish: Ciudadela) is a town and a municipality on the western side of Minorca, one of the Balearic Islands (Spain)

Originally founded by the Carthaginians, it was already the seat of a bishop in the 4th century. After being governed by the Moors under the names of Madina al Jazira and Madina al Manurqa for several centuries, Ciutadella was recaptured during the reconquista by men serving Alfonso II and became part of the Crown of Aragon. During the Middle Ages, it became an important trading center.

On the 9th of July 1558,the Turks under Barbarossa with a powerful Turkish Armada of 140 ships and 15,000 soldiers, put the town under siege for eight days entered and decimated the town.The town was defended by only a few hundred men. All of Ciutadella's 3,099 inhabitants who survived the siege were taken as slaves to Turkey together with other inhabitants of surrounding villages. In total, 3,452 residents were sold into slavery in the slave markets of Istanbul(Constantinople),Turkey.