Menorca Culture
Menorca's intense cultural and artistic life is one of its attractions, offering music festivals, art exhibitions, museums, and a variety of different collections. Longstanding cultural entities such as the Ateneu de Maó and the Cercle Artístic de Ciutadella organize debates, conferences, and painting and literary contests.
The deep-rooted Menorcan musical sensibility finds expression in choirs such as the Capella Davídica of Ciutadella Cathedral, the Orfeu Mahonés, and the Coral Sant Antonio. A taste for bel canto is evident in the Setmana de l'Òpera (Opera Week), with performances in the Teatre Principal in Maó, whose original building dates from 1829. Joventuts Musicals de Ciutadella organize a series of concert every summer in the former Augustine monastery, Joventuts Musicals de Maó chooses the Cloisters of San Francisco for the Maó International Music Festival, and the Fundación del Órgano de Santa Maria de Maó holds concerts featuring that church's organ, built between 1807 and 1810 by the Swiss Juan Kyburz.
Evidence of the various cultures and civilizations and the most important events of the island's history can be viewed in the collections of the Museu de Menorca, located in Maó's spacious Franciscan monastery; the Museu Municipal del Bastió de sa Font in Ciutadella, in one of the five bastions of the city walls; the Museu Militar of Menorca, installed in the Cuartel de Cala Corp, a barracks erected by the British in 1771; the Museu Diocesà de Menorca, in the Seminary of Ciutadella; and the Col·lecció-Museu Hernández Mora in the Cloisters of Carme in Maó.
There are libraries in every city and town, among them the splendid collections of the Biblioteca Pública de Maó, the Biblioteca Municipal de Ciutadella, and the library of the Ateneu de Maó.
Menorca is a cultural mosaic that boasts seven theatre groups, art galleries and exhibition halls (Sa Nostra's Sales de Cultura in Maó and Ciutadella, the Església del Roser in Ciutadella), and many cultural entities: the Institut Menorquí d'Estudis (IME), dedicated to research; Obra Cultural de Menorca, publisher of the Enciclopèdia de Menorca, the Espai Cultural Rotger in Alaior, etc.