Costa del Sol Towns

Line of Gibraltar

 

In 1731 construction began on the two great forts, called the Santa Barbara and San Felipe. The first was named in honor of the Patron Saint of Artillery Gun, ranking Levante beach, where their remains are still visible. 

The second is named in honor of King Philip V, and is situated on the west beach. Between these two forts they built a great central wall with several weapons in places running from Santa Barbara to San Felipe.  The line was a kind of "provisional" camp formed by artisans and merchants who supplied the military and their families in the vicinity of the fortifications erected for besieging Gibraltar, and that as a territory conflict it was not authorized for the settlement of a stable civilian population. 

The strengths of The Line of Gibraltar remained intact for twenty years, fulfilling the purpose for which they were built. In the early nineteenth century the invasion of the Iberian peninsula by the French troops. Spain had signed a defense pact with Britain to fight the French in the Spanish War of Independence. 

Under the pretext of fear the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte, who had already arrived in the region, took possession of the fortified line.  The Spanish agreed with British Colonel Holloway, chief engineer in the garrison of Gibraltar, to overthrow the Spanish forts and batteries around, and proceed with its blasting on February 14^th 1810. 

After the destruction of the physical line that blocked the passage through the isthmus, the city continued to grow with a high dependency of Gibraltar, and covering the needs of all types in the British colony (supply of food: meats; fruits; vegetables; recreation and fun; physical space for housing near an abundant labor force in the service of an expanding empire, etc.)

Line Contravalacion Coastal defenses of Gibraltar and the Bay of Algeciras 

Gibraltar was under constant surveillance and was besieged on several occasions (1727, 1779-1783) without much luck to the Spanish armies. The English, stronger than ever, began an expansionist policy which was not covered in the Treaty of Utrecht. 

Given this fact, the Spanish government made a decision that would be crucial in the history of the future Linea de la Concepcion: the construction of a stronghold, Line or Line Contravalacion Gibraltar. 

This order was issued on November 2^nd 1730 by the Director of Engineering, Jorge Prospero Verboom, for the construction of two forts, one located to the east and one west of the isthmus, uniting both by a line of fortification.  The aim was to prevent the movement and to assert rights on the isthmus, in addition to patent the Spanish presence in the area, prohibiting British ships berthing at the port of Gibraltar.