Flat Bastion
Although one version of Santiago was in fact finished in 1599, according to Ángel Sáez in his “La Montaña Inexpugnable – Seis siglos de fortificaciones en Gibraltar:
The construction of . . . Santiago - did not meet with . . . approval . . . despite the fact that its construction had finished by 1599. This dissatisfaction led to improvements being carried out during the first years of the 17th century. . (My translation)
Fundamentally, these improvement took into account the steep slope in which it was built. The solution was to divide the bastion into three parts so that each of them was on level ground allowing the artillery to work properly.
The text of the plan shown above reads in English as follows from top left downwards:
The old wall of the town (Charles V Wall)
Baluarte de Santiago, first, second and third platforms
Casemates and platform of the Baluarte del Rosario
The two gates from left to right are labelled - “Entrance to the Bastion” and “Gate of the City” (Southport Gate”).
Caption reads:
Profile of the drop of the wall and the land from the flanking wall of Santa Cruz to el Baluarte del Rosario.”
South Bastion.
Baluarte del Rosario (1597 – Unknown – cropped)
The above plan is perhaps a proposal for the building of the original Baluarte del Rosario as the fort was still under construction in the early 17th century.
The Baluarte del Rosario is supposed to have been finished in around 1627, the work of the engineer Andres Castroria
1621 - Plan of the Baluarte del Rosario (18th March 1621- Andres Castoria)
According to Portillo:
Sacase hoy todavía de Carteya o Cartagena mucha cantería labrada. El año de 1599 se sacó de ella gran cantidad de esta cantería de las paredes de un edificio que estaban debajo de la tierra para la obra del Baluarte de Rosario.
Darren Fa and Clive Finlayson in their “Fortifications of Gibraltar. . . ”suggest that:
In 1627 both the bastions of Nuestra Señora del Rosario and Santiago and their trace are practically identical to that shown by Specklin in his book.
From Menni’s point of view and as far as I can make out, Rosario and Santiago were probably the two most modern and adequate of Gibraltar’s many defensive structures.
L. “Puesto de San Felipe”
The text in the plan above reads as follows.
Planta de la trinchera que ha acordado el Sr. Marqués que se aga que son las líneas amarillas que bienen a çerrar donde la trinchera de Calvi (Muralla de San Benito – Charles V Wall) (t.) asta asirse con la del Fratin (el Fratino) (Muralla de San Reymondo – Philip II Wall) (s.) ocupando siempre lo más áspero de las peñas como se muestra en esta planta y las líneas coloradas es el parescer de Tribulcio. (Tiburcio Spannocchi)
And below that:
Peñas tajadas que están encima el trabés de Sta. Cruz”.
The red colouring seems to have been lost. However, according to Menni's map, the problems involved in the construction of the north to south defensive system connecting the two main ones of San Benito and San Reymondo appear to have been unresolved.
This despite the fact that Bravo’s map below seem to have most of it covered. Perhaps by 1669 they were no longer considered important enough to bother repairing.
From north to south the relevant walls are San Phelipe (Felipe), San Agustin, Dos murallas de San Justo y Pastor and San Domingo (Early 17th century – Bravo de Acuña)
P. “La Puerta Nueva que oy se llama de Guzmán”
Also known at one time or the other as Puerta Nueba (sic), Puerta de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, Puerta del Campo, Puerta de África, Puerta de Medio Dia, Puerta de San Rosario and Puerta de la Ciudad.
I find it hard to decide which Guzmán is being referred to. The medieval nobleman and hero, Guzman “el Bueno”, or his 15th century descendant, Don Enrique Pérez de Guzmán, who drowned while attacking the Line Wall during the ill-fated 7th siege.
Another perhaps likely candidate is Francisco
de Guzmán who was the mayor of Gibraltar 1665 to 1672.
g. “Nuestra Señora del Rosario”
Despite having its old doorway wrongly identified for many years as belonging to another church elsewhere, Nuestra Señora del Rosario has finally and been identified as having stood in exactly the place shown by Menni in his map. It is now a minor tourist attraction -
16th century entrance to Nuestra Señora del Rosario (21st century)
An odd mistaken identity as it is quite easy to find graphic proof of its existence in any number of maps.
Nuestra Señora del Rosario to the north of “Southport Gate” (1567 – Wyngaerde)
Elrrasario (Nuestra Señora del Rosario) close to the bastion named after it (1600s – Cristóbal Rojas
The Hacho in the early 17th century (left, Luis Bravo de Acuña- right, artist’s impression)
The building with a cross was the Ermita de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe - The area probably remained more or less unchanged during the first years of the British take over . The two masts on either side of the Ermita were used to signal appropriate coded messages – using ether flags or black leather balls - to the town below as to any naval activity in the Straits or the Gut.
Known to the Spaniard as Muralla de San Reymondo.
During the mid-20th century there was some speculation that this wall might have been of Islamic origins and was sometimes associated with the “Wall of the Arabs” that appear in some Islamic documents .
The remains of the wall built by Tariq and his army are still in existence; they are known as the wall of the Arabs, and I myself have seen them during my stay there at the time of the Siege of Algeciras ( may God restore it!) (Ibn Juzayy -14th C)
H.T. Norris in his Early Islamic Settlements even goes so far as suggest it was built by the Almohad 12th century founder of the town of Gibraltar, Abd al Mu’min:
The “Wall of the Arabs” seen by Ibn Juza’i was in reality built much later than the Conquest (by Tarik). It was probably a work of Abd al Mu’min, the Almohad.
Modern archaeology appears to have refuted this theory and it was eventually given the less anachronistic appropriate name of Philip II Wall.
Known to the Spaniards as Muralla de San Benito – or la Muralla de Calvi after Giovanni Battista Calvi, the Lombard engineer who built it.
British call it Charles V Wall
x. “Otro pozo menor que suele servir para las galeras”
(See (tt.) and (rr.)
y. “El Baluarte que llaman del Chorruelo”
According to the Spanish historian Ángel Sáez Rodríguez:
By the start of the 17th century two covered structures were built - La Fuente del Chorruelo and the Medialuna de los Tres Reyes. The New Mole was protected by la Torre del Tuerto. ) (My translation)
I suspect Sáez took this name from the plan shown below.
1627 - Adapted from Luis Bravo de Acuña)
I cannot find a convincing translation for these two words. The best I can come up with is “underground exit”. This might refer to part of an underground system carrying water from a source somewhere to the south of the Red Sands area via an aqueduct, for distribution to other places in town.
Menni also uses the (rr.,) caption elsewhere in the northern part of town (see Section 2) to identify what I presume to have been an old Islamic barracks found within the Castle precinct and which had been renovated preciously
Its appearance in this section appears to be a mistake. The long line that traverses what was the called Las Arenas coloradas or Red Sands follows what may have been an old pathway to the south sometimes referred to as Camino Alto de la Alameda, Camino a la Ermita de Nuestra Senora de la Virgen de Europa, or even Camino Real.
An alternative suggestion is that it shows the route of an important underground aqueduct which could perhaps have been better identified with the tt caption.
The aqueduct is labelled as 61 – above it is the road to the south – whatever it was called in the mid 18th century (1768 - Thomas Kitchin – cropped and adjusted)
To view each section in detail, together with my comments where possible, please click on the following links.
With many thanks to my digital friend Rafael Fernández. Without his endless help and advice I would not have been able to write these essays on Octavio Menni's map of Gibraltar.