Es Vedrà () is a small rocky island off the south western seaboard of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

island of

Ibiza Ibiza (natively and officially in ca, Eivissa, ) is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, in Spain. Its la ...

.Mapa Topografico Nacional de Espana, 798 Eivissa. 1:50.000. Published: IGN – CNIG (Spain Civilian Survey): 2006. The island, which is 413 metres tall, is part of the Cala d’Hort nature reserve and lies off the coast at Cala d’Hort, which is in the municipality of

Sant Josep de sa Talaia Sant Josep de sa Talaia (, es, San José Obrero) is a village and municipality of the Balearic Islands in western Ibiza. The village is west of the capital Eivissa and is located on the PM803 highway between Eivissa town and Sant Antoni de ...

."579 Regional Map, Spain, Islas Baleares. Pub:Michelin Editions des Voyages, 2004, The island is uninhabited.The Rough Guide to Ibiza & Formentera. Pub:Rough Guides, Penguin Group, 2003,

Geology

Es Vedrà consists predominantly of

mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretace ...

The History Buff’s Guide to Ibiza. Author: Emily Kaufman. Published: Tarita, S.L.

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

, and contrary to the

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

urban myth An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

of being a special

magnetic Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particl ...

place, has no (magnetic) metal accumulations. The island we see today is as a result of a geological tumble. 155 million years ago, continuous

seismic Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

movements in the Earth's crust caused great shifts in the Betica Mountain Range. Eventually this caused the splitting of the range resulting in the formation of the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...

. Continued movement of the ridge which formed the islands caused portions to sheer and split away from the islands. Es Vedrà, along with the satellite island of Illa Vedranell and the Illa Tagomago, are examples of this action.

Habitation

The island has no human inhabitants, although in 1855The White Island, The Colourful History of the Original Fantasy Island, Ibiza. Author: Stephen Armstrong. Published: Corgi. a

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Ca ...

friar by the name of Francis Palau y Quer once lived here for a short time following his exile from

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...

. The only inhabitants were a sub-species of wild goat but these were slaughtered by the local government in 2016 to protect the fauna of the island. There is also a sub-speciesInfo on Sub-species of wall lizards
of the Ibizan wall lizard on the island. It is also home to a colony of the endangered bird of prey called

Eleonora's falcon Eleonora's falcon (''Falco eleonorae'') is a medium-sized falcon. It belongs to the hobby group, a rather close-knit number of similar falcons often considered a subgenus ''Hypotriorchis''. The sooty falcon is sometimes considered its closest re ...

Legends and mythology

The island is said to be home to

siren Siren or sirens may refer to: Common meanings * Siren (alarm), a loud acoustic alarm used to alert people to emergencies * Siren (mythology), an enchanting but dangerous monster in Greek mythology Places * Siren (town), Wisconsin * Siren, Wiscon ...

s and sea-nymphs, who tried to lure

Odysseus Odysseus ( ; grc-gre, Ὀδυσσεύς, Ὀδυσεύς, OdysseúsOdyseús, ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; lat, UlyssesUlixes), is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the ''Odyssey''. Odys ...

from his ship in Homer’s ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Iliad'', ...

''. It is also thought of as the holy island of the

Tanit Tanit ( Punic: 𐤕𐤍𐤕 ''Tīnīt'') was a Punic goddess. She was the chief deity of Carthage alongside her consort Baal-Hamon. Tanit is also called Tinnit. The name appears to have originated in Carthage (modern day Tunisia), though it doe ...

the

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their his ...

n lunar

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In many known cultures, goddesses are often linked with literal or metaphorical pregnancy or imagined feminine roles associated with how women and girls are perceived or expected to behave. This includes themes ...

, worshiped as the

patron goddess A tutelary () (also tutelar) is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety an ...

and of fertility, who became Ibiza’s patroness. Legend has it that specific sacrifices were made to

during

full moon The full moon is the lunar phase when the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon (when the ecliptic longitudes of the Sun and Moon differ by 180°). This mea ...

s on the shore of the island.

The Giant of Es Vedrà

Es Vedrà is also the setting for one of Ibiza’s popular fables (). ''Es Gegant des Vedrà'' (''The Giant of Es Vedrà'') is the tale about two brothers who, to cure their father of an incurable illness, had to go to Es Vedrà island to gather

rock samphire ''Crithmum'' is a monospecific genus of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, with the sole species ''Crithmum maritimum'', known as rock samphire, sea fennel or samphire. The name "samphire" is also used for several other unrela ...

and face the huge giant who lived on the island, huddled in one of the island's many caves. The two brothers’ ingenuity, along with the help of

sea urchins Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...

, managed to debilitate the giant, and thus collect the samphire for the cure.

Francis Palau y Quer

The

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Ca ...

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ...

Francis Palau y Quer arrived on

following his exile from

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

in 1855. Needing solitude, he used to retire to Es Vedrà by rowing a boat, to pray there and seek God's will. Legend says that he spent a week

meditating Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

surviving on nothing but

rainwater Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water fo ...

he collected from drips from the roof of a cave he used for shelter. Within hours, he began to witness a series of powerful visions. He later described them in a book, called ''My Relations With the church'' He started to write ''Mis Relaciones Con la Iglesia'' (''My Relations With the Church''), a sort of autobiographical journal, partly written in the idyllic solitude of Es Vedrà, transmitting his experience of the Church conceived as God and neighbors. Fr. Francisco Palau, O.C.D. was beatified in Rome by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on April 24, 1988. His liturgical feast day is commemorated on November 7.

Es Vedrà in popular culture

* The island appears on the front cover of

Mike Oldfield Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...

’s 1996 LP ''

Voyager Voyager may refer to: Computing and communications * LG Voyager, a mobile phone model manufactured by LG Electronics * NCR Voyager, a computer platform produced by NCR Corporation * Voyager (computer worm), a computer worm affecting Oracle ...

''. * The first track on the CD compilation, by DJ Tiësto called " In Search of Sunrise 6: Ibiza", is by Es Vedrà ("La Hacienda"). * Es Vedrà features in the background of a scene in the music video of Reflekt's "Need To Feel Loved".Music video featuring Es Vedrá
/ref> * DJ and trance producers

Aly & Fila Aly & Fila are an Egyptian trance music duo made up of Aly El Sayed Amr Fathalah (Aly) and Fadi Wassef Naguib (Fila). They host an Internet radio show called Future Sound of Egypt, and are the founders of the label of the same name. The duo has p ...

collaborated with

The Thrillseekers Steve Helstrip, known by the stage name The Thrillseekers, is an English DJ and record producer. His debut single was "Synaesthesia", released in 1999. Helstrip has worked under the guises of En Motion, Insigma, Rapid Eye and Hydra. He also w ...

to produce a trance song named after this island: "Es Vedrà".Music for the track
/ref> * The island appears on all front covers of "La Roca" CD compilations from Spanish DJ Nacho Sotomayor.

Gallery

File:Eleonorenfalke1.jpg, The endangered bird of prey called Eleanor's falcon File:Vedra Sonneuntergang.JPG, Sunset over Es Vedrà File:Es-vedra-island-drone.png, Es Vedrà viewed from a drone

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vedra, Es Islets of Ibiza Uninhabited islands of Spain