The town can trace its origins back to 1160CE when the Madinat al Fath (City of Victory) was constructed by the Muslim Caliph Abd al-Mumin.
From 1309 to 1333 the rock briefly fell to the Spanish, but when the Merinids from North Africa re-established Moorish rule, they set about greatly improving and extending the city.
There is little to show in the city from the period from 1462, when the Duke of Medina Sidonia captured the rock for the Spanish, and the Anglo-Dutch invasion in 1703.
The walls were strengthened, particularly on the southern side, and a convent of Franciscan Friars was established in a building that was later incorporated into the Governor's Palace.
The cathedral the Spaniards built was largely destroyed during the Great Siege, as was much of the rest of the city.
Most of the buildings within the city walls, thus date to the 18th and 19th centuries, whilst outside the walls they are mostly from the 20th or, in the case of the Europort area, 21st Centuries.
The Anglican Cathedral is a strange, but oddly successful, mixture of Moorish architecture and English neo-Gothic church furnishings.
The church was built between 1825 and 1832 under the direction of one Colonel Pilkington of the Royal Engineers.
In 1842 it became the cathedral of the Diocese of Gibraltar which stretched from Portugal to the Caspian Sea. In 1981 this became the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe and now covers the whole of Europe outside the British Isles.
The American War Memorial was erected in 1932 by the United States of American to commemorate the achievements and comradeship of the American and British Navies in Gibraltar during the First World War.
It was designed by French-American Paul Cret who was Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania.
External Links and References
External Links
Naval Monument at Gibraltar
The American Battle Monuments Commission Handbook entry https://www.abmc.gov/Gibraltar#.WGVJLlz2RW8
The British War Memorial, sometimes referred to as the City or Gibraltar War Memorial, records the names of Gibraltarians who gave their lives in the First World War.
It is the work of sculptor Jose Piquet Catoli from Barcelona and was unveiled in 1923.
Casemates Square has been many things in its time.
Originally it was a beach on which the Moslem inhabitants used to draw up their galleys. At some time in the fourteenth century a galley house was built to protect the fleet as it sheltered in the bay below the MoorishCity of Victory.
The bay gradually silted up and by the time the British arrived the area was largely residential.
Until, that is, the galley house, which the British had adapted to use as an ammunition store, blew up clearing the area.
After that, it was used as a parade ground, a barracks, for public hangings, and eventually as a car park.
Nowadays, the cars are gone and it is a pleasant and relaxed area, home to pavement caf?s, pubs and souvenir shops.
Originally the chapel of the adjoining Franciscan Convent, the Kings Chapel is the oldest intact church in the heart of the city, having been completed in around 1560.
It remains largely unmodified.
It became the Garrison Church after the British arrived, remained so until the Anglican Cathedral was built in 1832. It returned to that role in 1842 when the latter proved to be too small to hold for the whole population.
A peaceful and beautiful space with many memorials to former governors and other military big-wigs.
The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St Mary the Crowned is built on the site of what was a Mosque built in around 1333 by Abdul Hassan
This was replaced by a Gothic building in the early 16th century, which was largely destroyed and rebuilt in the early 19th under the then Governor of Gibraltar Sir Robert Boyd. The west front was replaced in 1931.
Up until modern timers the Landport Gate was the only way into the City from the mainland, other than by sea.
There was a Moorish gate on the site that was replaced by the Spaniards with a gate and tunnel. A ditch was added, and the gate rebuilt in 1543.
The current gate dates from the British reconstruction in 1729 following the destruction caused in the area during the siege of 1727. During the Great Siege of 1779-1783, the stone bridge over the ditch was deliberately destroyed, and later replaced by a wooden drawbridge
In 1790 the Prince Edward's Gate was cut through through what was an old Moorish wall that had been strengthened by the Spanish King Charles V.
It is named after the fourth son of George III, later the Duke of Kent and father of Queen Victoria.
This was during his first posting to Gibraltar. He later returned as Governor in 1802, but left again in 1803 refusing to surrender the Governorship. Gibraltar, therefore, had a Lieutenant Governor from 1804 until the Duke died in 1820.
The Gibraltar Museum is an interesting place with, amongst other things, an impressive model of the Rock as it was in 1867 and a display on the 'Gibraltar Woman' Neanderthal skull.
The most photogenic exhibit, however, is one of the best-preserved 14th century Moorish Bath Houses in Europe.
This is located below the later 18th Century building that was originally officers quarters. Part of the building was known as the Bomb House, as it was the residence of the Principal Artillery Officer, after which the road takes its name.
External Links and References
External Links
The Gibraltar Museum (currently off line)
Official Site of the museum, with opening times, admission prices, etc. Not much else though. https://www.gibmuseum.gi/
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