Santa Eulalia del rio History

A shrine with offerings to the goddess Tanit was established in the cave at Es Culleram, and the other Balearic Islands joined Ibiza's trading centre after 400 BC. Ibiza was a major trading post along the Mediterranean routes. It established its own trading stations along the nearby Balearic island of Mallorca, from which large quantities of mercenaries were hired who fought for Carthage.

After the Punic wars Ibiza negotiated a favorable treaty with the Romans, who spared Ibiza from further destruction and allowed it to continue its existing trading links, well into the Empire days, when it became an official Roman municipality.

After the Roman empire fell there was a brief period of rule, by first the Vandals and then the Byzantines. The island was then conquered by the Moors, as was much of the Iberian peninsula. Under Islamic rule, Ibiza made links with the city of Dénia (the closest port in the nearby Iberian peninsula) as the two areas were administered jointly by the same taifa. Moreover, the tribes who lived in Ibiza and Denia during the period 1060–1085 were Moorish.

The island was taken back in Christian hands by Catalan King James I of Aragon in 1235. Since that time, the island has had its own self-government in several forms until 1715 when King Philip V of Spain abolished the local government's autonomy. The arrival of democracy in the late seventies after dictator Franco’ death led to the Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands. Today the island is part of the Balearic Autonomous Community, along with Mallorca, Minorca and Formentera.

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