Between the walls of Can Botino eight centuries of life’s events are kept amongst which the ‘footprint’ of the archivist Isidor Macabich still survives
 
As I look at the new headquarters of the city’s Historic Archive, the first report I wrote on arriving in Ibiza comes to mind: the donation of several hundred photos of the fortifications of Dalt Vila to the archive, which was then housed in the old town hall.

 

I was attended by Fanny Tur, who, ever since has been for me the ‘country’s greatest archivist’, who appeared walking sideways, squeezed between two columns of files of the old municipal archive. 
 
I remember the shelves stuffed with files, books and old newspapers, many of which thickly coated in dust.  Fanny told me they would be moved in a near future, that the town hall’s facilities had been fine when they were inaugurated, but now they were getting small.  It was necessary to grow.
 
The archive has grown, and how!  You have to come and see.  I mean it.  Between these walls there are eight centuries of history.  Medieval documents, all strored at optimum temperature and humidity, that tell of the running of the city, of the justice system, of when the two came into conflicts, and of thousands of small aspects of daily life that make up the mortar of history.
 
My biggest passion is consulting the slides of old publications.  Many are now digitalised and can be consulted very comfortably.  Look out, you can find magazines like ‘El Coco de Ibiza’- from 1893!-, the ‘Union Republicana’-from 1900 to 1904, pioneer of advanced ideas in Ibiza- or ‘El Agricultor’- from 1905 to 1907, all the topics that worried the peasants of the day-.
 
It’s also highly recommendable to consult the press which covers the tragic summer of 1936 and the ideological comings and goings followed by the headlines, or check out the political election manifestos and the different arguments between the parties of the day – with tactics which are repeated still all these many years later-
 
The archive stores and displays, but also restores ancient documents, like the ‘Llibre del Claveri’ (1373) or the ‘Llibre del Escrivà de la Sal (1473).  But, honestly, if you want to go into the million little stories, adventures and the entire universe which unfold from these scrolls, I would advise a quicker and easier route: the ‘Historia de Ibiza’ by Don Isidor Macabich.  You’ll find it all there not in vain, as it was Macabich who created this archive, and for 34 long years was its self appointed keeper.