1669 - A Map of Gibraltar - Section 7
(See section 6)
ll. “Ermita de Ns Señora de Europa
Also known today as the Shrine of our Lady of Europe.
(1600s – Cristóbal Rojas - cropped)
According to Portillo, the hermitage appears to have originally been a mosque:
Esta ermita a lo que parece es obra morisca; muéstrenlo unas bóvedas moriscas que tiene. Ahora está muy ampliada y engrandecida la iglesia casi al doble de lo que conocimos la mayor parte de los vecinos de esta Ciudad.
I will not bother quoting numerous sources that agree with this proposition. However, as regards when exactly the original mosque was built . . . I really don’t know, but the Vatican apparently agreed to the celebration of a Jubilee year dating it back to 1309 by issuing a joint stamp with Gibraltar commemorating the event.
I suspect that what is being celebrated was the year in which the mosque was first converted into a Christian church which would be just after Ferdinand IV of Castile had recovered Gibraltar from Islam. This means that the mosque might have been constructed at any time during the Marinid/Nasrid period from 1333 right up to 1462 when Gibraltar became a Christian town once again. And for all I know, it might have been built even earlier than 1309.
I can find no mention of this structure in the general literature. Sáez in his Las defensas. . . is unusually vague by his meticulous standards.
El Topónimo Negrillo era conocido en Gibraltar por alguna referencia muy puntual, pero solo descubrimientos recientes permiten situarla con precisión. . . solo existía noticias de cierta torre Negrillo en la “estancia de Europa” . . en el siglo XVII . . . También en la costa sur del peñón . . . se citaba una “Punta de Negrillo” . . .
Sáez then goes on to claim that a map dated 1723 held by the British Library entitled An exact plan of the fortifications of Gibraltar pin-points its position in the extreme south-east of Europa flats.
However, as far as I can make out, towers with different spellings but possibly referring to this one appear on two other 18th century British maps as shown below. Both, however, are placed on the eastern side of the southern defences whereas Menni’s version is on the western side.
Torre del Nigrillo (1712 - Plan of Gibraltar produced for Colonel Kane – cropped and adjusted)
La Torre de Megrillies (1743 – John Hardesty – cropped)
Bravo makes no mention of the tower but his plan of the southern area tantalisingly includes two uncaptioned towers, one on the eastern side and the other at the western end of the appropriate south facing defensive wall.
(Early 17th Century – Bravo de Acuña – cropped and adapted)
Portillo:
Adelante de la otra parte de la muralla, que dije cerca la peña, esta otro murillo viejo donde alcanza a batir la mar, con una puerta Morisca que sale a la mar y llamase aquel sitio el Corral de Fez, y a lo que se puede entender, debía haber allí alguna población de moros de Fez o mercaderes que les debían traer mercaderías de África a estos moros Españoles.
Ignacio Lopez de Ayala possibly took the following directly from Portillo:
Al norte de la virgen de Europa, i sobre la caleta del Laudero, (see Section 4) corría un murillo viejo, I en él una puerta a la morisca, que introducía al sitio llamado corral de Fez; i a lo que se puede entender hubo allí alguna población de moros de Fez, o mercaderes que conducían mercaderías de África a los moros Españoles.
Nevertheless I am still uncertain, despite Menni’s very clear labelling of the entire southern wall as to whether the “Murillo” is a different one from what appear to be a continuation of the semi-encircling Line Wall. For example in Bravo’s plan shown above he seems to distinguish between the wall itself G – Murallas que encierran el monte) and whatever it was that he captions D - Corral de Fez.
My feeling is that these walls are the remains of those constructed in the 14th century and poorly repaired thereafter. According to Sáez in La Montaña . . . :
Towards the south (of Windmill Hill) Abu-Innan’s wall still existed although in deplorable condition. It is instructive to realise that just a few decades after they had been repaired and renovated, the old wall continued to collapse as had been happening during the previous years. (My translation)
Menni’s map of this part of Gibraltar is oddly lacking in detail – in particular the fact that it fails to identify the considerably difference in height levels between Windmill and Europa Flats. This is especially when we take into account his special interest in defensive capabilities of this part of Gibraltar.
Again, Sáez in La Montaña:
En esta parte fue proyectada por Octaviano Meni (sic) en 1662, la fortificación del Puesto de los Bueyes (Windmill Hill) . . . Se estudiaba por entonces si rodear con una muralla esta elevación desde la cara este a la oeste, franqueándola con dos baluartes y dos semi-baluartes o construir un fuerte pentagonal.
No sign of anything remotely like this in Menni’s or indeed anybody else’s plans. In fact no sign of anything at all.
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.