This ornate sandstone arch is set into the western façade of the former St. Jago's Barracks at the southern end of Main Street, near Southport Gates. The arch is all that remains of the 16th century Spanish Hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary [Spanish: Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Rosario].

During his 2013 budget, Minister for Culture and Heritage, Steven Linares MP, announced that conservation works to the medieval wall in Southport would be extended to include the restoration of the historic arch at St. Jago’s Stone Block. A restoration team under the supervision of the Director of the Gibraltar Museum in consultation with the Gibraltar Heritage Trust completed the first phase of the project by September 2013, with phase two, which included interpretation of the site and lighting of the monuments completed by October. The completed restoration projects were inaugurated by the Honourable Steven Linares MP on the 22nd January 2014.¹

The Hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary was situated in the Turba district of the city. During the Moorish period the area beyond La Barcina (now Casemates Square) was known as the Turba al-Hamra which literally means the Red Sands. The Turba was originally the part of the city where the poorer inhabitants lived but the town expanded the Turba began to be populated by more affluent inhabitants who fled the claustrophobic confines of La Barcina and Villa Vieja. During the Spanish period, the area of cultivated land stretching from the convent of St. Francis to Charles V Wall was known as La Huerta de Ceberos. This large orchard covered the grounds of what is now the Convent garden, John Mackintosh Hall and Ince’s Hall. The Hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary stood at the south-eastern fringe of this orchard. Portillo clearly describes the existence of this hermitage near the defensive wall whose gate was “called Our Lady of the Rosary after a hermitage that stood there by that name.”² This gate was subsequently referred to as the Gate of Africa by Luis Bravo, perhaps not to confuse it with the Bastion of Our Lady of the Rosary (now South Bastion). The wall itself has been known by various names: Charles I, El Rosario and Mediodia.³

According to Manolo Galliano who has done extensive research on our old Spanish Churches, the hermitage was a double aisled chapel measuring 85 feet by 27 feet, with the raised altar placed in the east and a large doorway leading out to the main street opposite la huerta de Ceberos. A statue of Our Lady of the Rosary stood on the main altar, with another of St. Benedict on a smaller side altar.

The doorway is all that remains of the Hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary which was built circa 1530/40. It is constructed of sandstone in the Renaissance style architecture, encompassing elegant fluted columns, an archway with roundels and an architrave decorated with rosette symbols. It is almost identical to the existing blocked-up archway which formed the main entrance to the church of the Franciscan monastery, remodelled and enlarged circa 1533, now the Governor's residence and situated inside the garages at the back of the Convent.⁴

For many years it was believed that the doorway was not originally from this site but had been erected there in the mid-18th Century and incorporated into the façade of an existing building. Mrs Dorothy Ellicott OBE JP, whose brainchild had been to erect the cast iron red plaques between 1959 and 1975 perpetuated this idea with a description on the iron plaque stating that the ‘doorway had been brought from the parish church of Villa Nueva, the oldest part of the town, badly damaged in the 1727 siege and later demolished to make Casemates Square.’ George Palao did not dispute that assertion restricting his observations to the simple view that ‘other researchers place the site of St. Jago’s Church (Iglesia de Santiago) in the Great Casemates and say that when it was demolished its west doorway was re-erected into the present barracks facia.’⁵

The source of this erroneous hypothesis seems to have been based the work of an anonymous author who wrote a satirical pamphlet entitled ‘Reason for giving up Gibraltar’ which criticised the blatant abuses and perceived corruption of the then Governor of Gibraltar William Hargreaves. James in his 1771 history describes one of the charges laid out against the Governor:⁶

‘Amongst other witty inventions (says the above pamphlet) to get money, the Church wanted to be repaired, and that a key was necessary to land goods at the water side, for the latter, subscriptions were raised among the inhabitants; and for the former a dollar per butt extraordinary was laid on wine: to repair the church, one half of it was pulled down, and, with the materials, storehouses were built on the esplanade, which were sold to the inhabitants: the sum that was to repair what was pulled down, was pocketed; and to save expense, all soldiers who swore, and were caught in the act, were obliged to work one or more days.’

The pamphlet makes no mention of the name of church in question but it seems that both Thomas James and later E. R. Kenyon assumed, without any evidence, that this church was probably the old Hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza, formerly a small mosque, located in the Villa Vieja district.

Ayala tells us that ‘there was a very ancient one [hermitage], and it is in the Villa Vieja, (which as I said, this district, and the castle was the only part inhabited by the Moors), and now known as Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza, to the very old inhabitants of the city I always heard them say Santiago, and later santa Brigida, and lately Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza.’⁷ The confusion caused by the old Santiago in Villa Vieja and the later Santiago in La Turba together with the pamphlet’s opaque reference to the destruction of an old Spanish church wrong-footed later British historians into believing that the old arch-way at St. Jago’s barracks was all that remained of the former chapel at Casemates. Kenyon’s account dismissed the assumption that any religious building existed there at all: ’⁸

It is sometimes stated that a convent dedicated to St. James stood on the side of St. Jago’s Barracks. There is however no shadow or foundation for this belief. The doorway at the west end of the barracks is clearly not in its original position but has been brought there from elsewhere. The name of St. Jago (Santiago or St. James) as applied to these barracks is derived from the fortification now called “The Flat Bastion,” the original name of which was “The Bastion of Santiago” under which title it is shown in a Spanish plan dated 1627…

Had Kenyon looked more closely at the 1627 Bravo map he would have noticed that a small Spanish church existed on the site now occupied by the old St. Jago’s Barracks near the baluster de Santiago from which indeed the present building derives its name. Today it is understood that the pamphleteer who completely threw off James, Kenyon, and even Ellicott amongst others was in fact referring to the part of King’s Chapel truncated by order of William Hargreaves in 1749: the surplus stone work being transported down to the esplanade and used as construction material and not the other way round.

The Hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary was one of several churches, chapels, convents and shrines founded in Gibraltar during the Spanish period. Ayala, who based much of his work on the writings of Alonso Fernández del Portillo’s 'Historia de la Noble y Mas Leal Ciudad de Gibraltar,' a work which he wrote between 1610 and 1622, stated that ‘in most of these establishments there are different Brotherhoods under different appellations’.⁹ The Hermitage of El Rosario appears to have been one such Brotherhood [Spanish: Confradia]. According to tradition, the devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary dates back to the early 13th Century, when it is said the Virgin appeared to St. Dominic in a vision, giving him a rosary and teaching him how to recite it. This Marian apparition received the title of Our Lady of the Rosary. Devotion to Our Lady had declined by the early 15th Century but the practice was once again successfully revived in around 1460 by the Dominican preacher and theologian Alain de la Roche, and the devotion spread rapidly across Europe once more. The Confraternity of the Rosary appears to have been founded in Gibraltar between 1688-90 thanks to the charismatic sermons of Capuchin Fray Pablo de Cadiz. From 1691-94, the practice of Public Rosaries, consisting of torchlight processions in which the rosary and litany of saints was recited, was initiated on the Rock. Such was the appeal of this confraternity of El Rosario that this Brotherhood together with that of the Ánimas were the only two fraternities successfully transferred to the Hermitage of San Roque in 1711 following the British capture of the Rock.¹⁰

Portillo placed the Hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary close to the New Gate [Spanish: La Puerta Nueva]¹¹ further claiming that the Baluarte de Nuestra Senora del Rosario (now South Bastion) was so called due to the proximity of the hermitage to the said fortification.¹² As the Hermitage was also known as la iglesia de Santiago, its sister bastion, the Baluarte de Santiago (now Flat Bastion) covering the entrance to the New Gate, was also named after the same church.

The proximity of the chapel of Santiago to the defensive bastions overrun by Turkish pirates under the command of Caramani and Ali Amete on the 10th September 1540 meant that the hermitage would have been amongst the first religious houses to be sacked in the raid. In his ‘Dialogue’ the Chronicler Pedro Barrantes Maldonado does not mention the chapel but he does mention that the Turkish corsairs did sack the nearby monastery of St. Francis which was just up the street and in the direction of the advancing horde:¹³

“The Turks, as has been said, had already reached the city, and spreading themselves through it, they entered through the principal street from the direction of the suburb (south) and began sacking the street all the way up to the Monastery of St. Francis, where the friars hearing the noise, fled to the Barcina district, with the Turks looting the monastery.”

Following the attack, the Baluarte de Nuestra Señora del Rosario was re-fortified and a defensive wall, extending all the way from the bastion to the Hacho [Signal Station], was built in 1540 protecting the Turba district from further corsair attacks. The initial wall was later strengthened by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1552.

Tito Benady claims that by the early 17th Century the old church had been abandoned. His premise is based on assumption that ‘the old church of Santiago which stood close by Prince Edward's Gate is not mentioned by Portillo so it must have fallen into ruins by his time.’¹⁴

Neville Chipulina believes Benady’s reasoning was based on the notarized documents held in San Roque which were subsequently transcribed and published under the title of Un Protocolo Notarial de Gibraltar in 1983.¹⁵ In one of the official records dated 1644 the old Church of Santiago is briefly mentioned:¹⁶

...and set on some houses that bordered on those of Baltazar Sanchez Trujillo, with the high ground and with the street that went up to the old church of Santiago. . . and as owner and gentleman that I am from the said beautiful house... down by the said alley that goes to the said old church of Santiago and at the rear by the hill range and ahead with the high street that goes right of the country houses to the royal wall (Charles V Wall…

However, different sketches and plans of Gibraltar during the 16th and 17th Century not only show the Hermitage of El Rosario as a distinguishing architectural feature, but subsequent cartographers show the edifice re-modelled over time. This suggests that far from being a ruin, the hermitage was in fact occupied and evolving over time.

For example, in his panoramic sketches of the Rock of Gibraltar, drawn in 1561, Anton van den Wyngaerde the Hermitage of El Rosario is clearly labelled (E) and his sketch show that the church was neither small nor insignificant but was considered as one of the more visible structures within the city. The church stood right next to La Puerta Nueva (South Port Gates) dismissing the idea that the doorway had been transferred there during the British period. Wyngaerde drawings shows a façade built in the arched style and of considerable height in relation to the defensive wall and surrounding buildings. Only the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned and the Convent of St. Francis appear to have been larger.

Location of the Hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary (E) near la Puerta Nueva (South Port) by Anton van den Wyngaerde (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford).

Cristóbal de Rojas plans of Gibraltar drawn in 1608 again shows a building clearly labelled as El Rosario this time within an enclosure and what appears to be an ossuary or kiln, possibly to assist with the disposing of bodies situated close to the Puerta Nueva later to become known as the Puerta de Africa.

In Luis Bravo’s 'Gibraltar Fortificada', dated 30 January 1627 the hermitage can again be clearly seen in its present location and shown as a rectangular building g, now topped by a cross, with its entrance to the main street.¹⁷ To the rear of the church lies a walled enclosure which could have been part of a graveyard which served the residents of the poor Spanish district known as “La Turba”. St. Jago’s cemetery graveyard enclosure which stretched from the area of Charles V Wall to the area now occupied by Lyonnaise Des Aux. A much later cemetery, erected during the British period and known as Deadman’s Cemetery is often credited with the distinction of being the only cemetery within the city walls of Gibraltar, but is most probably an erroneous view, for most, if not all Spanish churches in Gibraltar included, in addition to a crypt for the more affluent members of society, a plot of land right next to the church for the internment of the poorer people. In this respect, the hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary was no exception. In fact, another cemetery probably existed right in front of the Hermitage of El Rosaria at one time, for it is recorded that when the foundations were being dug for the offices and stores of the Army Ordnance Department (now Ince’s Hall), a number of skeletons were found, in some instances, Rosaries were found.¹⁸

The Revd. Geronimo de la Concepcion in his 'Emporio de el Orbe; Cadiz Ilustrada' of 1690, writing about Gibraltar, lists a total of 16 religious establishments including the Hermitage of Nuestra Senora del Rosario.¹⁹ It appears then that the old Church of Santiago and the cult of the Rosary was alive and well right up to the capture of Gibraltar by Anglo-Dutch forces in 1704.

A further study by Juan Manuel Ballesta Gómez even gives us the names of some of the Brethren in the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary including a curate, Juan Asensio Román ‘who remained satisfied as a Brother hermit in Our Lady of the Rosary’.²⁰ This was the same Juan Asensio Román who together with Father Juan Romero de Figueroa and an un-named bell-ringer prevented the wholesome ransacking of the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned from the plundering soldiery which sacked the town following the capitulation of the city to the besieging Anglo-Dutch forces in 1704. Ballesta Gómez also states that the two stewards of the Confraternity were military men; Cavalry Captain Francisco Toribio de Fuentes and Alonso de España who commanded the artillery.²¹ The proximity of the Bastions of Santiago and El Rosario probably accounted for the popularity of the Brotherhood of Our Lady of the Rosary amongst the military.

With the capture of Gibraltar by the Anglo-Dutch forces in 1704, all the churches, chapels and convents, with the exception of the Franciscan monastery (now the Convent) and the Church of St. Mary the Crowned (now the Roman Catholic Cathedral), were either looted or taken over by the occupying forces for other tactical purposes, including as stores.²² The friars of the monasteries of Nuestra Señora de la Merced and of San Juan de Dios, also stubbornly remained in residence during the first few years of English military occupation but all other religious establishments were abandoned when the population left the Rock taking as much religious iconography as possible.

Alonso de España, the steward of the Fraternity of Our Lady of the Rosary on being interrogated by a representative of the Bishop of Cadiz in 1705 stated that prior to leaving the Rock (to settle in Ronda) he had been informed by Juan the hermit, caretaker of the hermitage, that he had personally deposited the statues of Our Lady of the Rosary and St. Benedict together with a silver lamp at the Church of St. Mary the Crowned.

Ayala confirms this statement writing that Father Romero collected and stored many other religious artefacts from the various religious establishments in the Church of St. Mary the Crowned, and over time, managed to smuggle these images and artefacts out of Gibraltar using any means at his disposal. In his book Under the Shadow of the Crescent and the Cross, Manolo Galliano quoting the work of Rafael Caldelas López wrote:²³

‘Some of those responsible for the many other confraternities, hermitages and chapels, took it upon themselves to safeguard or remove as many of the precious objects and images as possible from those churches in order to prevent them from being looted or destroyed by the enemy, as had occurred with the ransacking of the Hermitage of Our Lady of Europe. This was indeed the case with the Confraternity of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad and that of its Third Order, sited in the Franciscan Monastery, the Confraternities of Nuestra Señora del Rosario and the Dulce Nombre de Jesus in the Church of St. Mary the Crowned, the Confraternities of San Diego, that of the Cristo de la Santa Vera Cruz, and also that of St. Joseph, together with the Hermitages of Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia, Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza and even the Prison Chapel.

Despite the difficulties presented by the British occupation of the Rock, Father Romero de Figueroa managed to reinstate, in 1714, two brotherhoods for the maintenance of the cult and the aid to the few Catholics who remained under his tutelage: one being that of Our Lady of the Rosary and the other Our Lady of Europe. Both brotherhoods however were submitted to a strict control of the governor, suffering severe limitations in their work.²⁴

It is possible that Father Romero’s intention was to ensure that these two chapels remained ‘in use’ and therefore not commandeered by the British in strict accordance with the terms of the capitulation agreed in 1704. However, when the last monks were ushered out of the Convent in around 1712 it would appear that the hermitage of Our Lady of the Rosary was commandeered as well thus ending the cult in Gibraltar. Records show that the cult of the Rosary was reconstituted in San Roque in 1711 to finance the funeral expenses of its Brethren. This cult was still venerated as late as the 1920’s attracting a huge following. The figure of Our Lady of the Rosary can be seen in a side chapel at the church of Santa Maria la Coronada in San Roque.

In 1717, the Bishop of Cadiz, don Lorenzo Armengual de la Mota re-established two old Gibraltar cults at San Roque: one as already mentioned previously was dedicated to the Ánimas and the other to El Rosario. The steward of both these Brotherhoods was entrusted to a Diego Ponce, whilst fray Pedro Jiménez of the convent of La Victoria in Jimena was appointed Chaplain.²⁵

The Hermitage of Nuestra Señora del Rosario was now occupied by the British and was first used as an armoury as shown on the 1736 map of Gibraltar and later referred to as a storeroom in Montresor’s 'Particular Survey of the City of Gibraltar' undertaken in 1753. The plan shows a small rectangular building with access to the main street, supported by six pillars which divided the hermitage into two aisles and at the eastern end having four narrow steps going up to a platformed area, which would originally have been the sanctuary for the altar.²⁶

The old cemetery was divided up into a number of yards, later to be called the King’s Yard, two of which were used to store coal for the Ordnance and Garrison departments. A number of buildings were erected in this former cemetery, including shops for carpenters, smiths, wheel wrights and armourers. All old grave markings would have been removed by this time, and indeed no Spanish grave stones have survived to this day.

After the capture of Gibraltar in 1704 St Jago’s cemetery continued to be used as a Protestant burial ground both for civilians and the Garrison’s rank and file even though the cemetery is not specifically described as such in the 1752 Montresor Ordnance map. It was sited right next to the wall, above the gates and cooperage. The British referred to this burial ground as simply Deadman’s Cemetery. Amongst the earliest tombstones to have survived from this period is one dedicated to J & J Williams dated to 1738 and 1769 respectively. Another, dedicated to C. Methman is dated to 1772, whilst another inscribed with the name E. Terry can be dated to 1785. The majority of the surviving tombstones range from 1791-1804.²⁷ After Hargraves Barracks was built, the area of Deadman’s Cemetery was used as recreation grounds for the military, including a ball alley which meant that many of the old tombstones were destroyed to make room.

In 1932, the twenty-eight surviving gravestones were removed on the orders of Governor General Sir Alexander J. Godley and placed in Trafalgar Cemetery thus saving them from entire destruction.

During the Great Siege of 1779-1783 only the southern side of the city appeared to have escaped the worst of the damage inflicted by the heavy bombardment of the Spanish and French besieging forces, including the hermitage.²⁸ Mention is made in the 1786-87 Pay lists of repairs carried out in ‘the Chapel storehouse near Southport’.²⁹ The building was repaired probably using as much of the extant stone material of the old hermitage as possible to reduce costs and labour. The main doorway which had suffered little or no damage at all was thus retained. All subsequent modifications continued to adhere to this original decision which ultimately preserved the door and façade from complete destruction.

After the siege, the yards behind the former hermitage no longer appear to have been used for the storage of coal becoming open waste ground, but the Deadman’s Cemetery next to the Charles V Wall remained in use. The burial ground was by now far too small and so burials were by the end of the 18th Century extended to the other side of Charles V Wall. This new plot, known as Southport Ditch Cemetery (now Trafalgar Cemetery) was consecrated in 1798. Another burial ground further to the south in area of the Red Sands was also consecrated around this time. All three burial grounds fell into disuse by 1814 after North Front Cemetery was reopened for burials.

By 1830, the buildings stretching from King’s Yard Lane to the old Hermitage was designated as part of District XXIII. The District was flanked by the Artillery Magazine which later became known as the Grand Stores to the west (now the Ince’s Hall and Gibraltar International Bank) and the Royal Sappers and Miner's Barracks at Hargraves Parade to the east.³⁰ These barracks had been built towards the end of the 18th Century or early 19th Century and stood on the site of the old carriage sheds which were adjacent to Deadman’s Cemetery. The whole of Southport was by now a heavily militarized area with the Commissariat stores and Town Range Barracks to the north and the Grand Stores. The Hermitage is described in the 1844 Crown Lands register as both a Smith’s shop (CP 713) and a store (CP 714). The old coal yard now occupied by St. Jago’s Estate was now being used as a stable and mule yard.³¹ The old hermitage building continued to be used as workshops and stores, and would continue to be used as such for a further twenty years.

Nevertheless, the acute shortage of land within the town to house the ever increasing numbers of the Sappers and Miners required in the colony of Gibraltar became an urgent matter during the second half of the 19th Century. In 1848, the engineering companies at Gibraltar stood at 197 following the arrival of a reinforcement of 53 rank and file, doubling in size from two to four companies.³²

In the early 1860’s the Chief Engineer of Gibraltar, Major General Edward Charles Frome directed Lt. Charles Warren R.E. to construct an 8-metre-long scale model of Gibraltar which Warren completed in 1865. The model was later painted in 1868 by Captain A. Branfill. This highly-detailed Rock model gives us an idea of what the buildings, fortifications and sea-defences actually looked like in mid-19th Century. No detail was omitted, including the arch and doorway of the former chapel on a one-storied storehouse. A smaller, adjacent building which was used as a carpenters’ shop³³ juts out to Southport Street in line with the rest of the other edifices which probably means that the dimensions of the old hermitage had not altered at all since the Spanish period.

Until 1883 the four service companies of sappers and miners (they would be re-titled as Royal Engineer Fortress Companies in 1885) were accommodated as follows: Two Companies at the Engineer Barracks in Hargraves and two shared barracks at Town Range with a half company of infantry.³⁴ In 1842 the Garrison had numbered 3,420 but following the Crimean War the strategic importance of the Gibraltar station had seen a dramatic increase in personnel so that by 1878 that number had risen to 7,599 men plus 533 wives and 1,231 children. By 1891, service personnel including families still numbered 5,896 to be squeezed into the same two square miles of town area as 19,100 civilians ³⁵ All available space had to be used to provide accommodations for the increasing number of Officers, men and their families.

In 1883, the Royal Engineers cleared a sizeable area of land directly to the west of Hargraves Barracks by demolishing the out buildings, the Ordnance Department store house (old hermitage) and adjacent carpenter’s workshop all the way down to Southport Street. In the first phase of construction, the Royal Engineers built a new three-storied barracks, which once completed, allowed the 15th Company of the Royal Engineers to vacate Town Range and move into new modern accommodation.

The superbly crafted 1865 Rock model of Gibraltar, now at the Gibraltar museum clearly shows what the old hermitage looked like prior to demolition few decades later. It was a two-storied building which extended back some eighty feet almost to the same dimensions as that of the 1753 Montresor map. Adjacent to it was the carpenter’s workshop which jutted out in line with the rest of Southport Street. The yard and armourer’s shop directly behind and above as well as an oblique shaped outbuilding reached as far up as Hargraves Parade. The slanting roofed building to the left housed an old guardroom and washhouse. All these above-mentioned buildings would be demolished to provide space for the erection of new barracks for the Royal Engineers in 1883.

An incredibly fortuitous photograph, part of a collection compiled by Lieutenant Colonel Federico Magellanes y Barros as the president of the Comisión del Plano de Algeciras unwittingly shows the first phase of demolition taking place. This would date the photograph in question to just prior to 1883 when the St. Jago’s Stone block was built. According to Neville Chipulina, Magellanes y Barros was responsible for collecting, annotating, editing and publishing some 60 photographs of Gibraltar as part of his brief to carefully record all current and projected British military construction that had increased dramatically during this period.³⁶ Chipulina identifies the origins of quite a few of these photographs to photographers such as James Hollingworth Mann, Francis Frith, Jean Laurent and others, which he suggests may have been taken anytime between 1868 and 1888. The whole collection of photographs has only recently been published by the University of Navarra in a book entitled Gibraltar [1888] fotografía y usos militares.³⁷

Photograph number 25 of the collection gives an incredible view of the town as taken from Flat Bastion Road, as suggested by the title. But it was the vast number of military installations which no doubt would have caught the attention of the Spanish military. But within the tangled mass of military buildings, clearly numbered for the benefit of military planners, and almost unperceived is the fact that a number of buildings from Hargraves to Southport, have been, or are in the process of being demolished. Even more incredible, is the fact that the photograph in question shows part of a wall that has been retained, and within that wall is a large rectangular door. The original door and arch of the old hermitage seen from the inside! The antiquity of the ancient Spanish doorway was recognised and a decision had been taken to retain and incorporate the old Spanish arch and doorway into the new block. To this, the Royal Engineers duly obliged.

Another photograph, taken possibly by the same photographer shows what is left of the façade of the old hermitage. The windows above the first floor show that there is no interior whatsoever, a piece of wrought iron lies on a dirt filled floor. The façade tells us that this was indeed a one-storied building. The wooden door is labelled Ordnance Store Department. The pillars and arch reveal significant erosion and damage after almost two hundred years of usage as a store house. But significantly, the stone work up until the arched frame work is exactly the same as it is today. So that not only has the arch been retained, but the entire ground floor western wall. The retained arch is clearly identified in the 1908 Ordnance Map of Gibraltar and shown as a Chapel Doorway. To further protect the old monument, the Royal Engineers condemned the door and erected an iron fence around the western wall which prevented further serious erosion and damage once the new barracks had been completed.

The Royal Engineers built an elegant stone façade with tall, double windows providing an airy, comfortable block for the men accommodated within. Uncharacteristically for the military, Geonese style shutters were installed, no doubt taking into account the direct sunlight the south and west section of the barracks would find itself exposed to in relation to the direction of the sun. The 15th Fortress Company RE, formerly in the Town Range Barracks were the first Company to be accommodated in these new spacious and airy barracks. The 15th Fortress Company RE would remain based at these barracks until 1914 when they were recalled to the UK on route to the western Front.

The second phase to provide further accommodation for the Royal Engineers resulted in the construction of another stone block on the site of the present St. Jago’s Estate. This flat roofed stone block was built in 1897. Another smaller stone block building was also erected within the sunken patio behind the stone block as can be seen in an early 20th Century postcard of the R.E. Barracks, Alameda Parade and Dock Works. At the completion of these works, the two barracks and integrated buildings became known St. Jago’s Barracks, so named after the old Spanish Bastion of Santiago (now Flat Bastion). The Gibraltar Directory begins to list St. Jago’s Barracks as such, only after this date.

With the completion of the new barracks, all four Royal Engineer Companies could now be housed together within the area of Hargraves. Hargraves Parade was the muster and parade ground for the Royal Engineers and many old photos and sketches depicting the Engineers at drill remain extant.

During World War I, the 1st, 15th and 32nd Fortress Companies of the Royal Engineers were withdrawn from coastal defence work and dispatched to France for service at the Western Front. They were replaced by men of the Territorial Forces; the 1/4th Devon Electric Light Company RE TF and the 1/1st Devon Works Company RE TF.

The end of the Great War saw the return of the regular Engineer Fortress to Gibraltar, once again quartered at the Hargraves and St. Jago’s Barracks. At the start of the Second World War, the civilian population was evacuated and the garrison greatly increased in size. The Royal Engineers brought in four specialized Tunnelling Companies tasked with excavating a warren of new tunnels to create accommodation for the expanded garrison and to store huge quantities of food, equipment and ammunition. By late 1943, all companies except 172 (Gibraltar) had been withdrawn to prepare for the invasion of Nazi occupied Europe. They were replaced in February 1944 by Nos. 650 and 656 Italian Pioneer Companies, all of whom had volunteered for service in the British Army even though they remained technically POW’s. These men were billeted at a camp at Glacis and Laguna but their Headquarters was set up at St. Jago’s Stone Block. When the Italians were finally repatriated in 1945, they were replaced by German POW’s who took over many of the jobs done formerly by the Italians. German POW’s worked alongside the Royal Engineers in some of the workshops around Town Range and Hargraves Parade, bussed in from their POW Camp at Little Bay. Throughout the war, the Royal Engineers continued to use Hargraves and St. Jago’s Barracks with lower part of the Stone Block used as various Company Headquarters, including as stated earlier for the Italians.

The return of the civilian population after the war saw the creation of the Military Town Planning Scheme that began in 1946. The general policy of this scheme was to move garrison out the city towards the south. Barracks and land being so released was to be used for permanent housing for the returning civilian population.³⁸ It was however, a slow laborious process, which required the building of new accommodation and workshops for the military in the south before land could be released. Hargraves Barracks became housing units for Gibraltarian families whilst St. Jago’s Barracks became the new St. Jago’s School in 1958. However, it was not until the 12th April 1966 that both Hargraves Barracks and St. Jago’s Barracks were officially handed over to Government. By then the old St. Jago’s Stone Block had been used as a school for over eight years.

St. Jago’s Secondary Modern School was one of four further education establishments in Gibraltar after the war. St. Jago’s School operated from 1958 to 1972 when the secondary school system was implemented and all four secondary schools; Gibraltar Grammar School, Our Lady of Lourdes Secondary Modern and the Technical School amalgamated. During the fourteen years the school operated, Mr. O. G. Requena (1958-66) and Mr. J. L. Romero (1966-72) were its only two Headmasters.³⁹ Mr. Romero was appointed as the first Headmaster of Bayside Comprehensive School following the amalgamation.

Pupils from St. Jago’s Secondary Modern School offered apprentice schemes by local companies (Source: GNA)

Following the transfer of St. Jago’s Secondary Modern to Bayside, the vacated building fell into a state of disrepair and the original sandstone arch suffered as a result of erosion and neglect. In 1977, a technical design of the arch drawn by V. Pearce of the Public Works Department (now archived at the Technical Services Department) detailed the rendered features of the arch, probably as a means to preserve the doorway. However, nothing further appears to have been done in this respect.

During the early 1980’s the 1897 St. Jago’s barracks and the Central Stores which had been lying derelict for many years were demolished and the land became a vacant wasteground. Fortunately, St. Jago’s Stone Block was preserved. The waste ground formerly occupied by the Central Stores is now occupied by Lyonnais Des Aux whilst the raised ground above the St. Jago’s Stone Block became the housing units for St. Jago’s Estate.

In 1984, plans to house the Income Tax Office in the ground and first floor of St. Jago’s Stone Block was drawn up by the Public Works Department. The second floor which covered an area of 8148 square feet had been considered as a potential location for the establishment of the new Gibraltar National Bank, but this project did not come to pass and the vacant floor was transferred to the Human Resources Department instead, taking possession of the floor as from the 28th November 1987.⁴⁰ The Income Tax Department would later occupy the entire premises when the Human Resources Department transferred its staff to Units 82-86, New Harbours in late 1999. Today, the Income Tax Office remain in possession of the building.

In 1989, the Government of Gibraltar introduced the Gibraltar Heritage Trust Act which listed the St. Jago’s arch described as a ‘doorway’ as a B listed structure.⁴¹ The erroneous red tourist plaque description of the door being a part of another parish church in Villa Vieja remained affixed to the doorway until conservation and restoration works carried out in 2013 together with more thorough research revealed the true origin of St. Jago’s Stone Arch. The new updated information board describes the doorway as follows:

For many years it was believed that a large doorway opposite the Ince’s Hall had been brought there from a nearby site. However, conservation and restoration work carried out by the Gibraltar Museum in 2013 confirmed that it was, in fact, in its original location. Drawings and plans dating back to the late 16th and early 17th Centuries show that this was indeed the location of the Roman Catholic Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario. Conservation works have exposed new parts of the doorway and have confirmed that it is in its original location. The doorway belonged to the original church. Now professionally conserved and restored, this ornately carved sandstone entrance and parts of the building’s adjacent walls are the only clearly identifiable remnant of the original building.

The rest of the remaining walls now form part of the building known as St. Jago's Stone Block, which is of later British construction, and which was named after the nearby 16th Century Bastión de Santiago that lies just east of the Trafalgar Cemetery, and was renamed Flat Bastion by the British. St Jago's Arch had been suffering from significant erosion for a number of years.

In 2013, Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar took the decision, based on advice from the Gibraltar Museum and the Gibraltar Heritage Trust, to conserve the monument. This was restored by the Gibraltar Museum between August and October 2013, in consultation with the Gibraltar Heritage Trust.

The completed works will be inaugurated by The Honourable Steven Linares, MP, Minister for Heritage of Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar, on the 22nd January 2014.

¹ https://www.gibraltar.gov.gi/new/sites/default/files/Press%2520archives/Press%2520Releases/2013/638-2013.pdf

²PORTILLO, Alonso Hernandez de: Historia de Gibraltar. Introducción y notas Antonio Torremocha Silva. Centro Asociado de la UNED, Algeciras (1994)., p. 59

³Ibid., p. 17 & 61

⁴http://gibraltarheritagetrust.blogspot.com/2014/01/

⁵PALAO, George: Our Forgotten Past (Gibraltar) 1977., p. 9.

⁶JAMES, Thomas: The History of the Herculean Straits: Now Called the Straits of Gibraltar…, Volume 2. London (1771)., p. 365

⁷AYALA Ignacio López de: Historia de Gibraltar (Madrid) 1782., p. 62

⁸The Royal Engineers Journal: Vol. XII. No. 4, October 1910. E. R. Kenyon Gibraltar under Moor, Spaniard and Briton (Continued)., p. 250

⁹BELL, James: The History of Gibraltar: From the Earliest Period of Its Occupation by the Saracens. (London) 1845., p. 40.

¹⁰QUINTANA ÁLVAREZ, Éxodo de las devociones católicas de Gibraltar después de 1704. Permanencia y transformación en las nuevas poblaciones del Campo y otras localidades vecinas: El Patrimonio Inmaterial de la Cultura Cristiana (San Lorenzo del Escorial) 2013., p. 497

¹¹AYALA. Opcit., p. 62

¹²Bell. Opcit., p. 125.

¹³GALLIANO, Manolo: Under the Shadow of the Crescent and the Cross: The turbulent history of St. Mary the Crowned – Mosque, Church and Cathedral. (Gibraltar Heritage Trust) 2015., p. 9

¹⁴BENADY, Tito: The Streets of Gibraltar – A Short History. Gibraltar Guide No. 4, (Gibraltar Books) 1996.

¹⁵SANZ TRELLES, Alberto: Catálogo de los protocolos notariales de Gibraltar y de su campo (1522-1713) en el Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cádiz, (Algeciras) 1998.

¹⁶CHIPULINA, Neville: The People of Gibraltar, 1530 - Cabeza, Santiago and Brígida – Gibraltar., https://gibraltar-social-history.blogspot.com/

¹⁷http://gibraltarheritagetrust.blogspot.com/2014/01/

¹⁸The Gibraltar Directory 1898: The Grand Stores.

¹⁹http://gibraltarheritagetrust.blogspot.com/2014/01/

²⁰BALLESTA GOMEZ, Juan Manuel: Aproximación a los Gibraltareños en 1704; Número 34 de Almoraima. Revista de Estudios Campogibraltareños (2007)., pp.154-155

²¹Ibid., p.155

²²http://gibraltarheritagetrust.blogspot.com/2014/01/

²³GALLIANO. Opcit., p.

²⁴QUINTANA ÁLVAREZ Francisco Javier: Éxodo de las devociones católicas de Gibraltar después de 1704. Permanencia y transformación en las nuevas poblaciones del Campo y otras localidades vecinas. pp. 491-508 en El Patrimonio Inmaterial de la Cultura Cristiana. San Lorenzo del Escorial (2013)., p. 497

²⁵Ibid., p. 498.

²⁶http://gibraltarheritagetrust.blogspot.com/2014/01/st-jagos-arch-restored.html

²⁷Trafalgar Cemetery list of tombstones removed from St. Jago’s Cemetery.

²⁸http://gibraltarheritagetrust.blogspot.com/2014/01/st-jagos-arch-restored.html

²⁹The Royal Engineers Journal: Vol. XII. Opcit., p. 251

³⁰The National Archives: MFQ 1/38/1 Gibraltar. Plan of the Royal Sappers and Miner's Barracks on Hargraves Parade shewing the alterations proposed in consequence of the accompanying communication from... the Lt. Governor dated 24th August 1830.

³¹GNA Crown Lands Series 15: Numerical list of properties 1844, Vol. B; Box 8.

³²CONNOLLY, T.W.J: The History of the Royal Sappers and Miners, From the Formation of the Corps in March 1772, to the Date When Its Designation Was Changed to That of Royal Engineers, in October 1856., Vol II, (1857) p. 98

³³National Archives: WO 78 4448 Map showing War Department and Admiralty Properties 1861-63

³⁴Army and Navy calendar for the financial year 1883-84: being a compendium of general information relating to the Army, Navy, Militia and volunteers…London (1889)., p. 109-110.

^{35 CONSTANTINE, Stephen: Community and identity: The making of Modern Gibraltar since 1704. Manchester University Press (2009)., p. 94}

³⁶https://gibraltar-intro.blogspot.com/2017/08/1870-photos-of-gibraltar-introduction.html

³⁷PARDO, Juan Carlos: Gibraltar [1888] fotografía y usos militares. Universidad de Navarra (2017).

³⁸JACKSON, Sir William Jackson: The Rock of the Gibraltarians – A History of Gibraltar, Associated University Presses (1987)., p. 296

³⁹ARCHER E.G, TRAVERSO A. A: Education in Gibraltar, 1704-2004. Gibraltar Books, (2004)., p. 133

⁴⁰Land Property Services: File St. Jago’s Stone Block 331 Main Street/50(a) Town Range.

⁴¹https://www.gibraltarlaws.gov.gi/articles/1989-12o.pdf