Mahon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The Irish surnames Mahon and MacMahon are not related.
Mahon (alternately, Maó; Catalan it is also the official name, Spanish Mahón), is a municipality and the capital city of the Balearic Island of Minorca (an autonomic Spanish community), located in the eastern part of the island. Mahon boasts one of the deepest natural ports in the world.
The name is attributed to the eponymous Carthaginian general Mago Barca, brother to Hannibal, who is thought to have taken refuge there in 205 BC.
Mahon was captured in 1287 from the Moors by Alfonso III of Aragon and incorporated into the Kingdom of Majorca, a vassal kingdom of the Kingdom of Aragon. Its harbour, one of the most strategically important in the western Mediterranean, was re-fortified.
Minorca was captured by the British during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1707, and its status as a British possession was confirmed by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. During the island's years as a British dependency in the 18th century, Mahon served as its capital and residence for the governor, the most famous being General Sir Richard Kane.
Today it serves as the seat of the Island Council of Minorca (Consell Insular de Menorca).
Towards the end of the 20th century, a refurbishment of its historic centre was made possible by income from tourism.
A traditional cheese made on the island (Queso de Mahón) is named after the city. Mayonnaise is argued to have its origin and name from this Minorcan city (derived from French Sauce mahonnaise). In Spanish mahón is also the name of nankeen, especially the blue cloth.
[edit] Spelling controversy
There is some debate over what the correct spelling of the city's name in English should be; due to the general tendency in English to ignore accents in foreign words, many dictionaries refer to the city by an adaptation (Mahon) of its Spanish name (Mahón), while many other sources vouch for using the Catalan spelling (Maó) in English-language publications.
Related to this, there is controversy around the correct official toponomy: (Maó) is the proper form according to Catalan orthography and approved by local, regional and national government, but (Mahó), is preferred by some conservatist and traditionalist Minorcan sectors. Some older speakers argue that in the Minorcan variety of Catalan the preferred spelling is [mô].
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- Mahon airport
- Virtual tour through Maó
- City council website
- Municipality of Mahon, WebMenorca site: walking tour of Mahon/Maó
- Note about the toponomy From the Onomastics office of Universitat de les Illes Balears (Catalan)
- Es Diari Digital in reference to the Maó/Mahón spelling controversy (Spanish)
- Mahon on Placeopedia
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- Mapping from Multimap or GlobalGuide or Google Maps
- Aerial image from TerraServer
- Satellite image from WikiMapia
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