From Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Arabs and Catalans
The Greeks came as early as the 8th century BC. To Ibiza and Formentera. It is from them that the name Las Islas Pitiusas - Island of the Pine Trees - comes from. In 654 BC When the Phoenicians decided to establish new colonies in the Mediterranean Sea, they came to Ibiza and founded the city of Ibossim - today's Eivissa. They were merchants and Ibiza became one of their main trading posts. The commodity of Ibiza was salt, also known as white gold. To this day, salt is extracted from the sea water in the salt fields established by the Carthaginians - the salt pans in the south of the island. The excavations from the Carthaginian period, which are exhibited in the small museum in Ibiza, show that the Carthaginians at that time worshiped deities from the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa and practiced a pronounced cult of the dead. The Punic necropolis on the mill hill Puig de Molins in Ibiza Town is one of the most important burial sites. There are over 4.000 burial chambers carved into the rock.
123 BC the Romans conquered the Balearic Islands. They called Ibiza Ebusus and did not consider it a conquered country, but made it a member of their system of power. Trade experienced an upswing, as the sales area had increased with the incorporation into the Roman Empire. Art, on the other hand, increasingly lost importance. What remains of what the Romans built and brought with them is little more than three statues standing like guards in front of and behind the main gate of Ibiza's city walls and the excavation of an ancient Roman settlement on Formentera.
Roman rule brought peace and prosperity for 6 centuries, it was a time of stability without dramatic changes and crises. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, Ibiza became the plaything of the mighty. Vandalism was a time of decline and decline. After the Vandals, the Byzantine Empire followed in 534. Once again it was a question of military and economic occupation. The religious and fiscal repression, however, was less brutal than that of the Vandals, and the higher culture of the new rulers caused an economic boom. At the end of the 7th century the Visigoths defeated the Byzantine fleet. Despite the frequent changes of rule, we cannot speak of a Vandalic, Byzantine or Visigoth Ibiza until then, but rather of the continuous decline of the Roman Ebusus.
At the beginning of the 9th century the Arabs came and renamed the island Yebisah. It was an era of calm and peace. They colonized the island and began a rule of nearly 500 years. The Arab influence is still noticeable today in the customs and the island dialect, for example in architecture, costumes, dances and musical instruments.
On August 8, 1235, the Catalan Guillem de Montgrí united his army with that of Pere de Portugal and that of Nunó Sans. Together they conquered Ibiza and Formentera and divided the islands among themselves. A new era began for these islands: Ibiza became Eivissa under the Catalans.
The cathedral tower and the Gothic noble houses on Ibiza's castle hill date from the time of the Catalans. The cathedral was dedicated to Saint Mary of the Snow - Nuestra Señora de las Nieves. After conquering Ibiza and Formentera, the Catalans vowed to build a church to dedicate to the saint whose feast day was closest to the day of the conquest. So, although you hardly ever find snow in the Balearic Islands, the cathedral was dedicated to Saint Mary of the Snow.
The rulers neglected the island and so it was often attacked by pirates. In the 16th century the island got caught in the crossfire of the hegemonic dispute between the Spanish and French crowns and at the same time in the dispute between Christianity and Islam. Ibiza became the favorite destination of the Serbian corsairs, who looked for slaves and went on raids. Watchtowers were erected, some of which are still on Ibiza's coast as a reminder of the dangerous times.
The war of succession at the beginning of the 18th century ended with a victory of the Castilian troops and their French allies in 1714. The official language after this conquest was the Castilian used at court. The island's Catalan languages, which were devalued as the mere colloquial language of the peasant and lower-middle-class classes, receded more and more into the background and were banned for schools and official use under Franco. In the course of the political conflicts of the late 1970s, marked by autonomous tendencies, Catalan experienced a further upswing, which was reinforced by the attainment of autonomy status. Today Catalan and also Ibizeno are official languages again.
