StraitTales2

 

Gibraltar's Moorish Dry-Dock

 

When the redevelopment of Grand Casemates was announced, a window was allowed to facilitate archaeological investigation of what is potentially Gibraltar's most promising site to date.

Under the direction of Clive Finlayson (Gibraltar Museum) and Francisco Giles Pacheco (Museo de El Puerta Santa Maria); archaeologists Pacqui and Maribel lead a six man (and woman) team from TopGem and Community Projects in investigating two, ten-metre squares in the sub-surface of the Square.

 ‘Hopes are high,’ reported Dr Finlayson, ‘since the early part of the British occupation, the area has functioned as a parade ground consequently much of it remains undisturbed.’

Apart from modern peripheral constructions, the last major work was Casemates Bombproof Barracks, designed by William Green before the Great Siege and eventually built in 1817. But even before the British arrived, the Square had changed little throughout the Spanish occupation and is essentially the same site-plan the Moorish builders left us. That plan shows La Barcina with its Watergate, leading directly from the beach, through which the Arabs brought their galleys directly into their Atarazana or arsenal.

 In selecting excavation pits the team also had the help of a past Governor of Gibraltar;  Don Luis Bravo de Acuna, who from 1617-35 produced reports and drawings detailing the fortifications and property of Gibraltar for his master, King Felipe IV.  Bravo sketched a vaulted building directly opposite the Watergate - which survived into the British period - but was it the atarazana and would any evidence remain?

 

 

Detail from Don Luis Bravo’s sketch, shows the atarazana to the right, Grand Battery and Landport to the left, the old stone Landport Bridge and (Hesse’s) demi-bastion enfilading Landport Ditch.

 

After removing the tarmac cover with a JCB, the painstaking task of brushing and trowelling first uncovered 18th C. British cobbled paving, then the remains of a Spanish house - destroyed when most of the square was levelled during the XIIIth Siege of 1727 - and eventually large square pillars of sandstone blockwork with brick infills between them. The pillars carry blocks of raised beach material, (a conglomerate of sand, gravel, shells and shingle compressed by millennia) apparently forming the southern supports for the atarazana arches and the brick infill seems likely to date from it's conversion to a shot-house. The northern supports - if they still exist - lie below Casemates Barracks and are unlikely to ever see the light of day again.

  

                           Detail from Montresor’s 1753 map showing the shot house and yard within Casemates.

 

Although the Shot-house didn't survive the XIVth (Great) siege, there seems little doubt that this was the Moorish Atarazana. As if to demonstrate it's pedigree, as excavations reached 1 metre 43, the tide came in.... seeping through the sand along the ancient water channel that the Arab galleys would have used.

The artefacts collected from site include a vast array of ceramic, bones, buckles and what may well turn out to be a musket. When they have been cleaned and conserved, many will appear on display at the Gibraltar Museum.

 

Paul Hodkinson, for Insight Magazine, June 1998.

 

Another side to Casemates:

 As things become old (for example Casemates barracks) they become unwanted and are typically given away. In this case the MoD gave the building to the GoG who used it to house the imported Moroccan workforce.

When they become older still, they are recognised as antiques, attract restoration and re-acquire value, which is exactly what happened here; so the Moroccans were turfed out.

 These building are usually just a shadow of their former selves as their original purpose has usually disappeared… but are held onto as heritage jewels from their former heyday. They are nearly always industrial or military sites.

Look behind the modern façade of Casemates House and see the reality of Victorian colonial tenements which remain occupied… but un-restored…. today in 1998.