Cartagena Naval Base

Cartagena Naval Base
Arsenal de Cartagena
Type	Military base
Site information
Owner	Spain
Controlled by	Spanish Navy
Site history
Built	1732-1782
Built by	Sebastián Feringán (1732-1762) Mateo Vodopich (1762-1782)
In use	1782 –present
Garrison information
Current commander	Vice admiral Aniceto Rosique Nieto
Occupants	See Ships

The Naval Base of Cartagena also known as Arsenal of Cartagena is a military base and arsenal of the Spanish Navy located in the city of Cartagena, Spain. It is one of the oldest naval bases in Spain and the world, having been created in the 18th century.

The port of Cartagena is in a privileged place in the Mediterranean. The port was created by the Carthaginians in the 2nd century B.C. It remained as a commercial port until the reign of Felipe V, when it took remarkable importance when the King remodeled the Navy and placed in Cartagena a naval base that would be the naval center of the Mediterranean.

It was at the end of 1731, when the construction of the arsenal started and finalize in 1782, in the reign of Carlos III. The finale cost was of 112 millions of reales.

The Naval Base of Cartagena was the most important industrial complex of the Mediterranean basin in the 18th century due to the activity of its shipyards and auxiliary factories, including carpentry, rigging, sailing, blacksmithing, as well as crafts and fine arts workshops for Carving of the ornamentation of the ships of the time. In the second half of this century, 21 ships, 17 frigates and more than fifty brigs, xebecs, hulks, galleys, etc. were built there, independently of a large number of smaller vessels. In the Arsenal, thousands of people worked daily in the construction and the maintenance of the units of the Navy.

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Wikipedia