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 : 22 April 2003 |
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