Ibiza Town

Phoenician settlers founded a port here in 654 BC on a sheltered bay, and by the 5th century BC the town had several thousand inhabitants. Under Carthage it became a busy trading centre exporting goods around the western Mediterranean, and its dead were buried in thousands of tombs on the hill of Puig des Molins. In the Second Punic War the Scipio brothers attacked it in 217 BC, but it stayed loyal to Carthage; it later made a favourable treaty with Rome, keeping its Punic institutions and coinage, and in AD 70 Vespasian made it a Roman municipality as Ebusus.

Vandals took the island in 424 and the Byzantines in 535. In the 10th century it became part of al-Andalus, when a new irrigation system was laid out, and the triple ring of walls around the hilltop dates from the Muslim town. On 8 August 1235 Guillem de Montgrí captured it for the Crown of Aragon; a local government established in 1299 lasted until 1717. Castile attacked in 1354, and in the 16th century Philip II had the medieval town enclosed in new Renaissance walls against Ottoman and Barbary pirate raids.

Charles III granted the town the title of city in 1782 so that it could become the seat of a new diocese. It remained a small island capital until tourism arrived in the mid-20th century. Hippies came in the 1960s and 1970s, the first big clubs opened in the 1970s, and the island's nightlife grew into an industry. In December 1999 UNESCO listed the old town, together with the island's Phoenician sites and its seagrass meadows, as a World Heritage Site.

Locals call the town Vila, and Eivissenc, the island's form of Catalan, is spoken alongside Spanish. The calendar is marked by the feast of Our Lady of the Snows, the patron of Ibiza, on 5 August, and by Sant Ciriac on 8 August, the anniversary of the conquest of 1235. In May a medieval festival in the old town celebrates the World Heritage listing.

Ibiza's modern fame rests on its nightlife. The club culture grew out of the hippie gatherings of the 1960s and 1970s, when people of many nationalities met to talk and play music; in that decade Pacha and Amnesia opened, and both are still in business. In the 1980s the music played in the island's clubs became known as Balearic beat, a forerunner of British acid house, and DJ-led club culture took over as rave spread across Europe. The season now opens with parties at the end of April and closes in mid-October, and the rules now include the closing of all nightclubs by 6am at the latest.

The town also has an artistic side. The architect and painter Erwin Broner built his house in Sa Penya in 1960, and some 130 paintings by Narcís Puget Viñas and his son fill a museum in Dalt Vila; the museum of contemporary art occupies part of the old town. Sailing is popular, and the island's waters host regattas such as the Ruta de la Sal.

About 55,000 people lived in the municipality in 2025, on just 11 square kilometres around the bay, making it the island's largest town. The economy rests almost entirely on services: tourism and small shops are the main sources of work, and the port, in a natural bay, is the island's main gateway by sea alongside the airport.

The rhythm of the year follows the season. From June to September the clubbing calendar dominates, the harbour fills with yachts and ferries, and many jobs are seasonal; in recent years luxury tourism has grown, with new restaurants, clubs and an improved marina. In winter the town returns to a quieter routine of school, office and shop.

Most residents live in the modern districts that have spread out around the old town. The cost of housing is a pressing local issue: in 2024 Ibiza saw protests by residents who said excessive tourism was driving it up.

Ibizan cooking draws on the sea and the farm. The best-known fish dish is bullit de peix, a stew of rockfish and potatoes; borrida de ratjada is made with ray, and tuna is also cooked in the island style. From the farm come sofrit pagès, made with lamb, chicken or both, and arròs de matances, alongside the island's own sobrassada and botifarró sausages. Sobrassada is a raw cured pork sausage seasoned with paprika, tied to the autumn and winter pig slaughter, the matança.

Desserts are distinctive. Flaó is a curd-cheese tart scented with mint; greixonera is a pudding made with ensaïmada pieces left over from the day before; orelletes are made from an aniseed-flavoured dough; and bunyols are fritters. Hierbas ibicencas is a well-known aniseed liqueur, while palo is a local aperitif, and the island also makes its own wines.

In town, the harbour front, Sa Penya and the terraces of Dalt Vila are where most visitors eat, while residents favour the bars and cafés of the Eixample.