Sa Senieta to house headquarters of Formentera museum

Foto sa senieta 2Today at 1.15pm in the Formentera Council's Sala d'Actes, President Jaume Ferrer sat down with regional culture minister Fanny Tur and local culture and patrimony secretary Susana Labrador to answer questions from members of the press. The appearance followed a meeting of the board of Formentera's museum and cultural centre foundation.

The meeting resulted in an agreement to create a local network of museums composed of three discrete sites:

Sa Senieta: the Formentera museum's main exhibition space, to house the permanent collection and general services for the public.

Can Ramon: public space dedicated to exhibiting the Formentera museum's ethnographic collection.

Fossar Vell's adjacent lot: archive and specialised library, conference hall, exhibition space, materials drop-off and reservation desk and research lab.

The infrastructure is being imagined as a network of high-quality museums for islanders and tourists that will meet the requirements set out by the Balearic Islands' museums act.

Sa Senieta
On December 19 the Formentera Council's purchase of Sa Senieta for €2.5 million became official. Of the total cost, one million euros came from the so-called Sustainable Tourism Tax, another €0.5 million from the Balearic ministry of culture, and the remainder from the Formentera Council.

Secretary Tur, for her part, affirmed an additional €0.5 million would be set aside to adapt Sa Senieta for use as the future headquarters of the museum of Formentera.

It is significant that Sa Senieta is the only building on the island included in Formentera's catalogue of “historic heritage” interest sites as per a piece of regional legislation known as 12/1998, from December 21. Added to the catalogue in 2002, it possesses a AT-C-150 rating and “B-level” protection in Formentera's listing of cultural heritage sites.

Can Ramon
The Can Ramon property, which consists of a home and well, was purchased by the Formentera Council with the goal of restoring it and using it, in the words of Tur, “to house a variety of both publicly- and privately-held ethnographic museum collections”.

Can Ramon figures on the island's cultural heritage catalogue with “C-level” protection. Built according to traditional techniques, the house is particularly large and includes a dedicated area for agricultural and livestock farming reminiscent of an industrial-scale farm. The catalogue indicates additional uses like wine making. The home's adjacent well, or aljub, is another element of traditional architecture with A-level protection.

Pledging the Govern would “take responsibility for the Formentera museum project”, Tur said she hoped the advances made this legislative session would make any back-pedalling impossible. President Ferrer thanked Tur for her role in making the museum a reality, saying, “I'm thrilled to be able to provide details on the project today, and to be announcing our hope that that swift completion is on the horizon”.