The funeral "navetas" are monuments that exist exclusively and only on the island of Minorca, and because of its beauty, aesthetics and good state of conservation, the Naveta d'es Tudons has become the most widely visited prehistoric monument on the island.
The Naveta d'es Tudons is located in the city limits of Ciutadella. Countless references have been made to it in books and articles ever since the 18th century. It owes its name to its characteristic shape of a ship ("nave" in Spanish), as it looked to the Minorcans like an upside-down boat with the keel facing the sky.
Navetas are funeral monuments from the Bronze Age that lasted until the start of the Iron Age (1400-850 BCE). It is a construction shaped like an elongated horseshoe, noted both for its shape and for the workmanship of the finely cut large stone blocks making it up.
A small lintel-topped door leads inside to a small antechamber and then on to the upper chamber and lower chamber. Inside were found the unburied remains of 100 individuals along with objects that formed part of their grave goods, such as punches, bronze bracelets and a spearhead.
It was excavated and restored in the late 1960s by combined teams from the Museums of Majorca and Minorca. Restoration focused mainly on the roof and apse, which had fallen down. It is listed as a Historical-Artistic Monument (1933) and forms part of the application for candidacy as a UNESCO World Heritage site. The monument is privately owned.
