The town first acquired the name of
Castillo de San Felipe, the castle that stood near the original center of
town. This fortress was built in
response to the Turkish threat and more specifically, the Barbarossa assaults
in the port of Mahon
in the year 1535, in retaliation for the conquest of Tunisia (a pirate hideout) by
Carlos V a few months before.
The castle was ordained by Philip II (regent of
the Spanish possessions of his father in those years), but years later, Joan
Baptista Calvi began additional construction.
In 1558, the castle was fortified in order to repel the Ottoman attack. The protections of the castle caused many to
live nearby. Eventually, a permanent
civilization was formed there. It grew
over the years and came to be known as S’Arraval Sant Felip.
During British rule (1763-1782), the old village of S’Arraval Sant Felip was abandoned
because it was dangerously close to the fortifications of the castle. During the siege of the French, on May 19, 1756, the town’s
proximity to the castle presented a real problem for the defense of the
fortress. Thus, people moved a safe
distance to the place known as the Nova Rabal between Cales Fonts and Cala
Corb.
Nova Rabal was set up with an orthogonal layout
in the center, yielding a spacious square, surrounded by barracks, much as the
French had done years before with St.
Louis. The
British had erected a spectacular castle here, but .the Franco-Spanish army,
under the orders of the Duke of Crillon, recovered and demolished the castle in
the year 1782, acquiring the British island
of Gibraltar at about the
same time.
During British occupation between 1798 and 1802, they returned to rebuild the
castle and its defenses, but the work was halted when it became known that the
Spaniards would again descend on Menorca. The village took the name Georgetown.
It was then that Georgetown began to
secede from Mahon
and enjoy local autonomy.
