The castle of San Carlos, new location for the Ses Fontanelles wreck

Palma City Council will authorize the construction of a desalination pond in the castle of San Carlos to house the 4th-century shipwreck found in Ses Fontanelles.

In this way, the operation of refloating and transferring the late Roman shipwreck, with around 300 amphorae sealed inside, by sea, could be carried out, according to the Town Planning, Housing and Urban Development Projects councilor, Óscar Fidalgo.

The intention is to take the wreck to this location in order to begin the desalination and conservation process, so that it can later be moved to the place that the technicians consider appropriate.

This project is expected to receive the approval of the Town Council's Urban Planning Department the following week, given that it has not been possible to give the go-ahead on Tuesday.

Fidalgo pointed out that the state of anoxia in which the ship was found has meant that the structures of the ship and the amphorae "have not been degraded", which is why "it has aroused so much interest at national and international level".

The extraction of the 12-meter wreck will be carried out by a multidisciplinary team made up of experts from the Consell de Mallorca and the Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB), among other institutions.

This pond would be at the entrance to the museum-castle, where there are some buildings with houses for military officers, and the ship would remain there temporarily until its definitive location is finalized, which Fidalgo said would "surely" be in Mallorca and he hopes it will be in Palma to turn it into "an element of attraction".

According to Ultima Hora, the Consell de Mallorca is planning to sink a replica of the Ses Fontanelles ship in order to refloat it and have all the data for the future extraction of the original wreck, which could take place at the end of the year.