Napier of Magdala Battery
| Napier of Magdala Battery | |
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| 100-Ton Gun | |
| Part of Fortifications of Gibraltar | |
| Rosia Bay, Gibraltar | |
The 100-ton gun at Napier of Magdala Battery
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Rear view of the 100-ton gun
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 Napier of Magdala Battery
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| Coordinates | 36°07′22″N 5°21′15″W / 36.1227°N 5.3541°W |
| Type | Coastal battery |
| Site information | |
| Owner | Government of Gibraltar |
| Controlled by | Gibraltar |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Condition | Good |
| Site history | |
| Built by | British Government |
| Events | Calpe Conference (2002) |
| Garrison information | |
| Garrison | Royal Gibraltar Regiment |
Napier of Magdala Battery is a former coastal artillery battery on the south-western cliffs of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, overlooking the Bay of Gibraltar. It also overlooks Rosia Bay from the north, as does Parson's Lodge Battery from the south. It contains one of two surviving Armstrong 100-ton guns.
In 1883 the British Government installed a single 100-ton gun: a 450 mm rifled muzzle-loading (RML) gun made by Armstrong Whitworth, at the battery by Rosia Bay that they named Napier of Magdala Battery after Field Marshal Robert Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala, who had served as Governor of Gibraltar from 1876 to 1883.
Earlier, in 1879, they had mounted another such gun in Gibraltar at Victoria Battery. These two batteries, together with two in Malta (Cambridge Battery and Fort Rinella), were a response to the Italians having, in 1873, built the battleship Duilio, which was to receive four Armstrong Guns of the same design. The British authorised the construction of Victoria and Napier of Magdala batteries in December 1878; they completed Victoria in 1879 and Napier of Magadala in 1883, at a total cost of £35,707. Because the British viewed the two batteries as part of the one large fortress that was the Rock of Gibraltar, the batteries lacked all-round protection and any of the close-in defences such as the dry moats with caponiers or counterscarp galleries that the British installed at Cambridge Battery and Fort Rinella, both of which were free-standing pentagonal forts.
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