S'HOSTAL 

Menorca's most unusual tourist attraction is a disused sandstone quarry outside Ciutadella, which has been turned into a monument to the island's history and traditions of quarrying. Sandstone has been used for building since prehistoric times; soft and permeable, hence easy to extract, it turns hard when exposed to the air and is the perfect building material. Traditionally it was extracted by hammer and chisel; the few remaining quarries use circular saws which dig deep into the ground, creating vertical walls of white stone.

The quarry closed in 1994; it was bought up by Lithica and re-opened the following year. You can walk around a 'labyrinth of orchards' in the old quarry, now being turned into a garden, then descend to the giant white amphitheatre of the modern quarry, 30m deep, where on weekdays workmen give displays of quarrying and at other times you stand in the eerie quiet of a sandstone cathedral. Lithica has ambitious plans for this site a maze, a sculpture park, a visitor, centre, a concert auditorium beneath the sheer white walls. An industrial wasteland has been creatively transformed into an unexpectedly special place.