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“Font d’en Miquelet” or ‘d’en Joan Armat’, the archduke’s corner.
Springs and wells attain reverential connotations in dry islands like the Pitiüses (Ibiza and Formentera).
The pagan tradition of celebrating the harvest of cereals was maintained in these places with the ‘balladas’ (folk dances) of summer. A good part of the legends of local mythology are also set in these places.And some, like this ‘Font d’en Miquelet’, can even leave a youth brought up in the pomp of the Austro-Hungarian court bewildered.
The original name of this spring is ‘Font d’en Miquelet’, but the Archduke Luis Salvador of Austria renamed it as ‘Font d’en Joan Arnat’, the name of the smallholding where it is situated, some two kilometres to the east of Santa Gertrudis. Both names are present on the sign post which, by the old lane of San Mateo, indicates the access path to the corner which left the melancholic member of the Austrian royal family enthralled in 1867. “The surroundings of the springs can be singled out for their exuberant flora and their freshness, which stand out notably from the rest of the countryside”. The exuberance mentioned by the Archduke hid a good part of this beauty spot until a couple of years ago when the spring was restored and the surrounding overgrowth was cut down. Despite this it still boasts a feathery reed bed and, above all, a twisted carob tree, which, defying gravity, grows laterally from the rock which frames the path, as if it wanted to form an entrance arch to the dry stone precinct. Because it’s not just the spring, there is a whole collection with regulation reservoir, waterwheel, a bridge over the small stream and huge walls which close in the smallholding of ca n’Arnat. Though nowadays it would be ‘can Philippe Rottier’, because it is the property of the Belgian architect, one of the major students and divulgers of the old typical Ibizan house, or ‘casa pagesa’ (not surprisingly, the house that can be made out from the spring is one of the most picturesque and spectacular on the island). Con la reciente restauración de esta fuente también se recuperó su mayor peculiaridad: unas pinturas murales de almangra (almàguena), con motivos geométricos y florales, que decoran la capilla de la fuente. Se supone que este graffiti se realizó en 1823, ya que en la alberca colindante, en la que las paredes lucen el mismo tipo de pinturas, esa fecha está grabada sobre la argamasa.