Qualla: Illa Conillera

Illa Conillera: Introduction

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JanManu, CC BY-SA 3.0. The island is named for its rabbits. Sa Conillera — Rabbit Island — is a low, arid ridge of rock six kilometres off Sant Antoni, and its most numerous residents really are the rabbits that swarm its slopes. But the humble name hides a strange double history. Local legend claims this modest islet as the birthplace of Hannibal, the general who nearly broke Rome. And in its stony ground, centuries later, someone buried the tortured bodies of executed pirates. For a place best known for rabbits, Sa Conillera keeps unusually dark company.

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Image: JanManu | CC BY-SA 3.0

Illa Conillera: A Ridge in Deep Water

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JanManu, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sa Conillera is essentially a single long ridge dropped into the sea. It runs roughly 2.1 kilometres from north to south and covers about a hundred hectares, its edges falling away in steep coast to deep water on nearly every side. It lies some six kilometres west of the resort t...

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Image: JanManu | CC BY-SA 3.0

Illa Conillera: The Lighthouse at the North End

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. At the island's northwest tip stands its one significant building: a lighthouse raised in 1857. A tower rises from a low circular structure, flanked by two rooms added half a century later, in 1908. The lantern sits 85 metres above the sea, and its light carries some 18 nautical ...

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Image: A.Savin | FAL

Illa Conillera: Wind-Beaten and Alive

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. Life on Sa Conillera is a study in endurance. The ground is rocky and dry, and little grows here but toughened shrubs and herbs — rosemary, thyme and rue in abundance, along with mastic, juniper and stunted pines that the wind has flattened into low, shrubby shapes, dotting the h...

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Image: A.Savin | FAL

Illa Conillera: The Birth of Hannibal

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User: (WT-shared) HaydenMink at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. The grandest of the island's legends concerns a birth. The story goes that Hamilcar Barca, the Carthaginian general, was sailing past Ibiza with his heavily pregnant wife when a fierce storm caught their warship. Hamilcar ordered his captain to find shelter, and they slipped into...

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Image: User: (WT-shared) HaydenMink at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

Illa Conillera: Three Skeletons

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit JanManu, CC BY-SA 3.0. The island's other buried story is grimmer and, unlike the first, left physical proof. Some years ago three skeletons were found on Sa Conillera and carbon-dated to the early 16th century. They are believed to be the remains of pirates brought to the island to be executed. The bo...

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Image: JanManu | CC BY-SA 3.0