Introduction |
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| The Moorish Castle
Complex is made up of various buildings, gates, fortified walls
and its most dominant features, The Tower of Homage and The
Gate House.
The former is an impressive sight, clearly visible to all
visitors, not only because of its striking construction but
also because of its dominant and strategic position. |
The Moorish Castle as seen today
| History of the period |
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Gibraltar has always
been of special significance to the numerous peoples and civilisations
that have visited or occupied it over the ages, from the Neanderthal
period, through the Classical and on to the Moorish, Spanish
and the present British occupations.
The Moorish occupation is, by far, the longest in Gibraltar's
recorded history, having lasted from 711 to 1309 and then from
1350 to 1462, a total of 710 years.
The importance of Gibraltar to both Moslems and Christians lies
in the fact that the Moorish invasion and occupation of Europe
started from Gibraltar in 711 and, through to its final re-capture
by Spain in 1462, Moorish rule was gradually undermined till,
with the fall of Granada in 1492, the Moorish occupation of
Europe came to an end after an uninterrupted 781 years.
The Moorish conquest of Spain was led by Tarik ibn Ziyad and
Musa ibn Nasayr. Gibraltar thus became the stepping-stone to
the conquest of Spain and part of France. This spectacular feat
of arms took a mere twenty-two years, no mean task considering
the distances involved, the state of the terrain at the time
and the fact that mechanical power had not yet been invented.
Gibraltar is reputed to have derived its present day name as
a breakdown of Djebel Tarik, the Rock of Tarik.
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| History
of the Moorish Castle |
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 Little
is known of the actual history of The Castle. Some chroniclers
claim that its origins date to the 8th Century when The Castle,
in its simplest form, is reputed to have been completed by Tarik
in 742.
In 1068, the Arab Governor of Algeciras, the city on the
west side of the Bay of Gibraltar, ordered that a fort be
built on "Jebel Tarik" (Gibraltar) to guard and
watch events on the other side of the Strait. This could very
well have been the origins of the present Tower of Homage
since there always appeared to have been a castle on this
very site around which the original walled town grew and to
which the population withdrew in troubled times.
In the early 14th Century The Castle was rebuilt to its present
form. It, therefore, stands on the actual site where the very
first Moorish fortification ever constructed on European soil
stood. It thus became the main fortification on the Rock of
Jebel from where the conquest of Iberia had been launched
in 711. But this is not the Castle's only important attribute
since it also has the distinction of having the largest Castle
Keep and the tallest Tower in the whole of the Iberian Peninsula.
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| Description |
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 The Moorish
Castle Complex starts at its highest point with The Tower of
Homage at its eastern extremity. Around The Tower lie the Inner
Keep and the Outer Keep. West of the Keeps lies The Qasbah with
its famous and unique Gate House.
Further down the Rock we came to Villa Vieja (The Old Town)
and from here to La Barcina with its Sea Gate at the site
of the present Casemates Gates. La Barcina is the name given
to the area where the original Moorish dockyard stood and
where their boats were careened for repairs and protection.
Great lengths of these Moorish fortifications and walls remain,
providing us with excellent examples of Islamic architecture
of the period. The Gibraltar Heritage Trust is now faced with
the daunting challenge of protecting them for posterity by
making good the ravages of time and neglect of man, and restoring
them faithfully to their original style and design and with
the same materials that were used at the time.
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| Last
Revised :
04 March 2008
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