Grand Casemates Gates
| Grand Casemates Gates | |
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| Casemates Gates | |
| Part of Fortifications of Gibraltar | |
| Grand Casemates Square, Gibraltar | |
Outside view of Grand Casemates Gates as seen from Market Place.
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Fortifications of Gibraltar in 1597 (north is to the left in this map). The Old Mole, extending into the bay, is in the lower left. The enclosure above the base of the mole was the shipyard. The gate from the yard to the base of the mole is just visible.
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 Grand Casemates Gates
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| Coordinates | 36°08′43″N 5°21′11″W / 36.145248°N 5.353075°W |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Government of Gibraltar |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1727 |
| Materials | |
Grand Casemates Gates, formerly Waterport Gate, provide an entrance from the northwest to the old, fortified portion of the city of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, at Grand Casemates Square.
The Rock of Gibraltar, linked to mainland Spain by a low isthmus, extends south into the Strait of Gibraltar which connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. It is a strategic location that has been occupied in turn by the Moors, Spanish and British. The Rock is inaccessible on its eastern side, which rises in a tall and steep cliff. The town lies on the west side along the shore of the Bay of Gibraltar. For many years a gate provided access from the sea into the northwest of the town through the defensive wall that ran along the shore of the bay.
The Moors occupied Gibraltar for centuries until Ferdinand IV of Castile took Gibraltar in the 1309 siege. In 1333 the Moors retook Gibraltar after a lengthy siege. The Spanish regained Gibraltar in August 1462 during its eighth siege. In 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession, a combined Anglo-Dutch force captured the town of Gibraltar. In 1713 Spain ceded the Rock to the British "in perpetuity". Over the years that followed the British made extensive improvements to the defenses.
The northern approaches to the town were defended by a Moorish Castle on the slopes of The Rock, from which walls ran down to the shore of the Bay of Gibraltar. Around 1310 Ferdinand IV ordered the Giralda Tower to be built on the coast at the west end of the wall to protect the dockyard. The Moors built a line wall, running south from the tower along the bay's western shore, which the Spanish later improved. The Giralda Tower was converted into the North Bastion by the Italian engineer Giovan Giacomo Paleari Fratino in the 1560s.
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Wikipedia