The Tower of Homage

Ref: HLFP3/702

The medieval Tower of Homage is the product of centuries of rebuilding, repairs, and extensions—necessary to withstand repeated sieges and advances in siege warfare. Known as the Tower of Homage, or the Calahorra (the White Tower), it is perhaps Gibraltar’s most recognisable landmark. Featured on postcards, travel books, and even the £5 banknote, it remains one of the Rock’s most visible and visited attractions.

The tower owes its iconic status to several factors, especially its commanding location. Rising 100 metres above sea level and standing 23 metres tall, it covers an impressive 320 m²—making it the largest tower of its kind in all of Al-Andalus, the part of the Iberian Peninsula under Islamic rule for nearly 800 years. Its presence dominates the west and north views of the Rock.

The name Tower of Homage (Torre del Homenaje in Spanish) reflects the Iberian equivalent of European keeps. Unlike most Western keeps, which often served as lords’ residences, there is no evidence this tower was designed for living quarters. Instead, its position at the highest point of the fortress was strategic: it guarded against attacks from above, where the walls would otherwise be vulnerable. Along with the inner and outer keeps below; the tower was large enough to house a substantial garrison.

Palao, who physically researched the castle, describes the tower of homage as essentially:

…a solid cube… constructed principally of “tapia”, a kind of of a very strong mortar moulded in frames and apparently composed of lime, red sands, small limestone chips and occasional fragments of brick or pottery.

Portillo compares the Gibraltarian Calahorra with an Italian “citadel” arguing that it had all the precise elements required for the defence of its Garrison:

. . . ovens, a very large and deep-water tank, weapon rooms and parade grounds, and other gun rooms.

Gibraltar £5 bank note.

It remains unclear when the moors first fortified the Rock. Chroniclers such as Ali ibn al-Athir and Dikr Bilad al-Andalus wrote in the 13th and 14th centuries that Tarik ibn Ziyad landed on Gibraltar’s red sandy shore and built a temporary fortification on the Rock, then known by its Roman name Mons Calpe. He renamed it Jabal Ṭāriq—“the mountain of Tarik”—a name later transformed into Gibraltar.

Archaeological excavations, however, have found no trace of this first fort, and some scholars even doubt whether Tarik ever set foot on Gibraltar, suggesting he may have landed elsewhere in the Bay. If a structure was built, it was likely no more than a wooden fort or lookout tower.¹

There are several different accounts, however, that tell of a wooden fort built up on the mountain. The 13th century Egyptian writer Ibn al-Athir wrote:²

‘…after entering the plains, he conquered Algeciras and other places, and abandoned the fort (hisn) that was on the heights of the mountain.’

The Dikr Bilad al-Andalus, an anonymous account written in the 14th century also referred to an earlier account of a fort built by Tarik:³

According to another account, when Tariq and the Muslim armies crossed the sea, they landed at the foot of Gibraltar, which is the Mountain of Conquest; from there he climbed to the top and ordered the construction of an impregnable fortress in which he entrenched himself with the Muslims.’

Gibraltar Philatelic Bureau presentation stamp pack showing the 1300th Annivesary of Tariq ibn Ziyad landing in Gibraltar.

The 14th Century Moroccan chronicler, Ibn Idhari al-Marrakusi who wrote the Al-Bayan al-Mughrib (History of the Magreb) in quoting excerpts from lost works recorded that:⁴

‘When the Muslims, Arabs and Berbers crossed the straits, they disembarked on the port and tried to climb the cliffs of the Mountain. To make it easier for themselves they levelled the pathways with their battle-axes and rode over them on horseback to the top of the mountain. There they constructed a wall to defend themselves. They call it the Wall of the Arabs.’

If a Moorish fort or signal tower ever existed in Tarik’s time, it was most likely located on El Hacho (today known as the Signal Station). From this high vantage point, the Moors would have maintained direct communication with their main base at Algeciras, using it as an early warning post against enemy fleets or forces advancing along the Alboran coast.

The first reliable references to a permanent fortification on the Rock, however, do not appear until 1067—more than 300 years after Tarik’s landing. At that time, the Umayyad governor of Algeciras received orders “to build a fort on Djebel Tarik and to be on guard and watch events on the other side of the Straits.”⁵

This early reference to fortifications was likely connected to the growing threat of the Almoravids, a revolutionary Berber sect in North Africa. They would cross the Straits only sixteen years later. The exact nature of these early defences is unclear, but they were probably located further south, within the fortified Moorish settlement of El Corral de Fez on the Lower Europa Flats—a site that provided a commanding view of all maritime movements from the Barbary Coast into the Bay of Gibraltar.

Tarik climbs to the top of the Rock.

It was not until the third Moorish invasion, led by the Almohads, that Gibraltar became fully fortified. In 1160, the Almohad ruler ʿAbd al-Muʾmin crossed the Straits and landed on Jabal Ṭāriq, renaming it Jabal al-Fath— “the Mount of Victory” or “the Mount of the Entrance.” There, he ordered the construction of a fortified city called Medina al-Fath (“City of Victory”). Although it remains uncertain how much of this city was completed, the first substantial fortifications of Gibraltar can be traced to this date, with improvements continuing over the following centuries.

The Tower of Homage that stands today reflects the style of 14th-century Muslim architecture. Roughly square in shape and once topped with crenellations, its massive walls were built primarily of tapia—a strong composite of crushed pottery or pumice mixed with limestone or marble chips, bound with lime and red sand mortar. When packed into wooden moulds, tapia hardened into a material capable of withstanding heavy bombardment. The surface was then coated with a finer cement and finished with a lime wash, giving the tower its white appearance and its alternative name, Calahorra. Evidence of later repairs can also be seen in sections of masonry and brickwork.

By 1309, Medina al-Fath had grown into a fortified town with a population of around 1,125 Moors, marking the first significant phase in Gibraltar’s transformation into a fortified stronghold.⁶

That same year, Gibraltar fell to the Christians for the first time after nearly six centuries of uninterrupted Muslim rule. The capture was more a matter of circumstance than strategy. King Ferdinand IV of Castile had originally laid siege to Algeciras but was unable to stop small boats from crossing the bay to resupply the city from Gibraltar. To cut off this lifeline, Gibraltar was attacked simultaneously from the north, across the isthmus, and from the south at the Red Sands. Both assaults failed. However, Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, leading the southern force, managed to drag two siege catapults up the Rock above the tower, from where huge stones were hurled down upon the fortress and the town below.

Despite this relentless bombardment, Gibraltar’s greatly improved defences—far stronger than the earlier rudimentary stone walls—held firm. The Moors eventually surrendered, not because the walls were breached, but only after being guaranteed safe passage back to North Africa.

Meanwhile, the original tower which stood above the town was demolished and, in its place, Fernando built another tower. This second tower would in turn be replaced by the Merinids with a much stronger tower in 1333 that would form the base of the present Tower of Homage.

By this point, the strategic importance of Gibraltar was clear to both Moors and Christians. Ferdinand immediately ordered repairs and further strengthening of the defences, including the construction of the Atarazana (galley house) on the site of what is now Casemates Square, to serve his fleet. Just a few years later, in 1315, the Moors attempted to retake Gibraltar but retreated quickly when confronted by the Castilian navy and a relieving army.

La Torre de Don Alonso from a manuscript circa 1600s.

As part of their defensive measures, the Christians appear to have installed an alarm bell atop the Calahorra Tower to alert the population of impending Moorish attacks. In 1977, historian George Palao, in his study of the Cathedral’s bells, identified one such bell as having been cast in 1308. This massive bell, weighing around one ton, was the largest and heaviest in the Cathedral belfry. Its inscription read:

‘ix b años net 1308 in p año de mill 1rrr † vox mearum torum sit terror demonyorum † mentems mtam apontaveam honorem deo patris it rionem’, which appears to translate as: ‘9 February in the year of peace 1308 - may the voice of my pealing be the terror of demons - placed here with the intention of honouring God the Father......’

Further evidence in support of this bell being at one time located in the tower comes from Spanish sources themselves. Portillo, writing in 1610-1622, stated that there was actually a bell at the top of the Calahorra Tower which was in use as an alarm bell and Father Juan Romero de Figueroa, in his summary of the history of the City of Gibraltar, made reference to ‘the ‘White Tower’ of the Castle, ‘where the Watch Bell is’.⁷

According to Manolo Galliano, ‘both the bell in the Tower of Homage and those set up in the Church of St. Mary the Crowned, were utilised to sound the alarm, should any enemies of the Crown be observed in the neighbourhood. Some confusion often ensued on the similarity in the ringing tones, as is shown in the following notice: ‘Gibraltar 10th April 1619: Information on the ringing in St. Mary the Crowned of Gibraltar regarding escaped Moors, which cause confusion due to its resemblance to the ringing of the alarm call against Moors and other enemies’.⁸

After the Great Siege (1779–1783), the bell was eventually installed in the belfry of the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned, during reconstruction of the church and its tower. The Tower of Homage itself had also suffered heavy damage, still visible today in its cannonball scars and in the complete rebuilding of its roof—replacing the Moorish crenellations that once crowned it. The gift of the bell by Governor George Augustus Eliott may well have been intended as compensation, since part of the church had been demolished to widen and straighten Gibraltar’s main thoroughfare.

Luis Bravo de Acuña Tower of Homage showing location of the medieval bell tower (south-east corner of upper tower).

The bell would certainly have rung out in 1333, when the Moors attempted to retake Gibraltar. At the time, the city’s governor, Vasco Pérez de Meira, had squandered resources on his personal estates rather than maintaining the fortifications or storing provisions. Exploiting this weakness, ʿAbd al-Malik, governor of Algeciras, landed 7,000 troops from Barbary and besieged the garrison. Starved of supplies, the defenders surrendered after only four months. Pérez de Meira’s corruption had delivered Gibraltar back to the Moors less than twenty-five years after its Christian conquest.

King Alfonso XI of Castile quickly launched a counterattack to reclaim Gibraltar. His effort nearly ended in disaster when a vanguard of about 1,500 men landed at the Red Sands and stormed the southern approach to the castle without waiting for reinforcements. The Moors sallied out through a hidden sally port at the rear of the Calahorra Tower, surprising the attackers from higher ground and forcing them to flee. The remains of this bricked-up sally port can still be seen today on the tower’s eastern wall.

Following this failed assault, the Christians settled into a two-month siege using the typical siege craft of the 14th century. Six siege catapults were dragged from Seville, three of them positioned on the Rock above the tower, likely around the site of today’s Old Willis Battery. From there, stones were launched against the town and fortress. Other engines, including battering rams, siege towers, mantlets, and attempts to mine beneath the walls, were all repelled. Naval attacks against the lower castle and dockyard also failed. Ultimately, the defenders held out until reinforcements from Granada arrived, and the Christians were forced to withdraw. Despite the ferocity of the siege and the range of siege weapons deployed, the castle’s defences remained intact.

A five-year truce followed, during which ʿAbd al-Malik further strengthened Gibraltar’s fortifications. Chroniclers, including Ibn Marzūq, biographer of the Marinid ruler Abu al-Hasan, described the works as “new walls, surrounding Gibraltar as a halo surrounds the crescent moon.” This may refer to an extension of the northern defences, curving like a crescent from the line of today’s Grand Battery to the Giralda Tower (now the North Bastion). Alternatively, it could describe the seawall (Line Wall), which by then extended south as far as Rosia, preventing enemy landings on the Red Sands.

The Moorish Castle and sea wall extension from a 14th manuscript.

During this period, the Moorish Castle itself—badly damaged by three consecutive sieges—was rebuilt into the form we recognise today, its enduring strength a symbol of Gibraltar’s strategic importance.⁹

; Abu al-Hassan incorporated the smaller, original tower, which had itself been rebuilt by Fernando IV following the first siege of 1309. This reconstruction produced the massive outer walls visible today, enlarging the tower’s footprint to over 310 m².

The new structure, built in 1344, included a tower section rising from the western mid-level battlements and the tower was reinforced and extend on all sides. A new staircase was also constructed on the north-west. The new upper level included living rooms, kitchen and bathroom, a small mosque leading to a concealed sally port and a cistern well. To support the immense weight of the new works above the older tower, a blind arch was incorporated on the western side. Within this arch, a murder hole was installed—a defensive feature allowing the tower’s occupants to shoot, throw, or pour harmful substances at attackers below. These could have included rocks, arrows, boiling water or oil, hot sand, or quicklime.

The murder hole’s location was especially significant, positioned directly above the tower’s only access door, which had been relocated during the tower’s enlargement. This strategic placement meant the hole could also serve as a quenching hole, enabling defenders to pour water to extinguish fires should attackers attempt to set the main door ablaze.

See the Virtual Museum: The Tower of Homage.

Tower of Homage showing the location of Murder Hole in relation to the 1344 works.

Detail of the Murder Hole.

The strengthening and extending of the castle fortifications to the North and South paved the way for the expansion of the city. In particular, the protection afforded by the strong sea walls of the Line Wall was crucial for the extension of the city along the sandy area to the South known as the Turba al Hamra, literally the "red sands". Spanish Chroniclers also describe the red sands calling it tierras bermejas or red lands.

The city was now divided into four distinct precincts, each built on its own distinct level: The Kasbah or citadel was the fortified quarter of the city and stood directly below the Tower of Homage. Access to the Kasbah was via a single gate that still survives today. An inscription visible up to the 18^th century dedicated this gate to Yusuf I, Sultan of Granada.¹⁰

This area, sparsely populated, consisted primarily of military barracks with several large gardens and orchards below the slopes of the western face of the tower.

Below the Kasbah was the Villa Vieja or Old Town. This was probably the original residential area protected by its own walled enclosure with two gates North and South. The Northern Gate led to the Northern Defences and part of this gate is still extant today. The Southern gate, which no longer exists, stood at the bottom of Crutchett’s Ramp and led out into the Turba.

Parallel to the Villa Vieja’s Southern Gate stood another gate that led into La Barcina or Port area. La Barcina was the bustling commercial area of the town and had two other main gates. One leading out to the Old Mole (Watergate) and the other towards the hinterland (Landport). There are various interpretations of the origin of the name Barcina, but none can be confirmed as authoritative, nevertheless, the phonetic resemblance to the Arabic for galley house (Dar-al-Slnaha) is considered the most suggestive.

The fourth district was La Turba, which quickly transformed from a poor shantytown to the rich suburbs away from the claustrophobic confines of La Barcina and Villa Vieja. The rapid expansion of the suburbs, now protected by the sea wall (Line Wall), culminated with the construction of the Grand Mosque (now the Cathedral of St. Mary the Crowned) and the nearby hamam or bath house (Museum) which finally transformed the Rock from a mere castle and garrison to a bustling port city for trade and commerce.

Saez and Torrermocha precinct sections of Moorish Gibraltar (2001).

A renewed attempt to re-take the Moorish towns of Algeciras and Gibraltar began in 1344 by Alfonso XI of Castille. Algeciras fell but Gibraltar, despite facing a besieging army of 20,000 men, stood firm. The siege, which began in August 1349, was lifted eight months later when Alfonso XI died from bubonic plague on the 27^thMarch.

Ibn Battuta who visited the city in 1353–4 was very impressed with Gibraltar’s defences:

I walked round the mountain and saw the marvellous works executed on it by our master, the late Sultan of Morocco, and the armament with which he equipped it, together with the additions made thereto by our master Abu Inan, may God strengthen him ... [He] strengthened the wall of the extremity of the mount, which is the most formidable and useful of its walls.

Anton Van Den Wyngaerde's sketch of Gibraltar's medieval Tower of Homage and the castle's northern defences, 1567.

In 1374, control of Gibraltar passed from the Marinid dynasty of Morocco to the Nasrids of Granada. This transfer of power set the stage for the sixth siege in 1410—the only siege in Gibraltar’s history fought between two Islamic powers. The conflict began when the Moorish garrison revolted, declaring their loyalty once more to the Marinids. A year later, Nasrid troops stormed the city, but their success was due largely to help from sympathisers within the castle walls.

The seventh siege, on 31 August 1436, ended in tragedy for the Christians. Enrique de Guzmán, Second Count of Niebla, led an assault on the sea wall at the Red Sands, but he and forty of his knights and men-at-arms drowned in the attempt. Legend claims that the Moors desecrated his body—beheading him and displaying the remains in a wicker basket above Gibraltar’s Sea Gate for the next 26 years. According to this tale, the name La Barcina derives from the Spanish word for wicker basket.

However, modern research challenges this story. Historian Neville Chipulina, in his essay on the origins of La Barcina, points out that contemporary Spanish chroniclers make no mention of such desecration. Instead, the evidence suggests that the Count’s body was treated with dignity: laid to rest in a coffin placed within the prayer room of the Tower of Homage.¹¹

It is also very possible that the Count’s coffin may have been interred somewhere else and later placed within the Tower of Homage by his son years later as a powerful symbol of dedication to his father’s memory after having finally conquered the Moorish castle 26 years later.

There is strong evidence to suggest that the remains of Enrique de Guzmán were indeed laid to rest within the Tower of Homage. In 1567, artist Anton van den Wyngaerde sketched Gibraltar in remarkable detail, recording not only the spot near the Red Sands where the Count drowned but also indicating the location of his remains within the tower—specifically inside its small chapel. The accompanying text reads: “The sepulchre where one can find the bones of the Count covered in brocade.” What remains uncertain is whether his body was interred there respectfully by the Moors themselves or later transferred by Enrique’s son.

Anton van den Wyngaerde sketch of the Castle Chapel, 1567.

Gibraltar finally fell to Christian forces on 20 August 1462, St. Bernard’s Day. Acting on intelligence from Ali el Curro, a Muslim convert, Alonso de Arcos, the military governor of Tarifa, learned that most of Gibraltar’s leading men and their retinues had departed for Granada to pay homage to the newly enthroned Sultan Abu l-Hasan Ali. Seizing this opportunity, Alonso launched a surprise attack on the weakened garrison.

The assault was supported by Rodrigo, son of the Duke of Arcos, but the first attack on the castle was repelled with heavy casualties on both sides. Realising, however, that they lacked the strength to withstand a renewed assault, the Moorish defenders sought terms of surrender. At that moment, there was no Christian commander of sufficiently high rank present to accept their capitulation. The garrison therefore delayed, awaiting the arrival of the senior nobles—Juan Alonso de Guzmán, 1st Duke of Medina Sidonia (son of Enrique de Guzmán) and Rodrigo Ponce de León, Count of Arcos—so that the honour of reclaiming Gibraltar for Christendom could be shared between them.¹²

In the event, the Duke of Medina Sidonia arrived first and it was agreed that in the meantime each side would enter the city with a contingent of just one hundred men with both standards being placed on the tower.¹³

However, the long-standing rivalry between the houses of Arcos and Medina Sidonia—two of the most powerful noble families in Andalusia—soon came to the surface. When the Christians entered the city, the young Count of Arcos realised that the Duke of Medina Sidonia had brought into the castle far more retainers than had been agreed. Once inside, the duke’s men quickly seized control of the key positions.

Fearing treachery and suspecting that he was walking into a trap, Rodrigo Ponce de León hastily withdrew from the castle, taking with him his father’s standard.¹⁴

With possession being 9/10^th of the law, the Guzman’s seized the prized city and castle of Gibraltar leaving the seething family of Ponce de Leon with nothing but avenging this slight to their family honour.

This opportunity arose almost immediately when, likely at the urging of the Ponce de León faction, Henry IV of Castile ordered the Duke of Medina Sidonia to relinquish the castle and transfer it directly to the Spanish Crown.

The feud, however, only deepened amid Castile’s internal power struggles. The Count of Arcos aligned himself with Henry IV—derisively known as “the Impotent”—while Medina Sidonia supported the king’s brother, Prince Alfonso, on the understanding that he would be granted “lordship of Gibraltar, both city and fortress.”

In April 1466, Medina Sidonia marched on Gibraltar and stormed the city, forcing the garrison to retreat into the heavily fortified castle. There they resisted for ten months, until—marking the first time in Gibraltar’s history—Medina Sidonia’s forces hauled up cannon to breach sections of the castle walls. The defenders were pushed back into the innermost chambers of the Tower of Homage, where they held out for another five months. Eventually, with supplies exhausted, they were reduced to eating the few edible plants that grew from the inner walls—and even the leather from their own garments.¹⁵

Esteban de Villacreces, Lieutenant Governor of Gibraltar eventually surrendered in June 1467. In total, the ninth siege of Gibraltar lasted a total of sixteen months – testament to the strength and depth of the castle complex.

When Prince Alfonso died in 1468, peace was temporarily restored. Yet, in a strange twist, Henry IV decreed the ownership of Gibraltar to the Guzmán family under the Dukedom of Medina Sidonia just a year later.

Escudo del ducado de Arcos.

Escudo del ducado de Medina Sidonia.

The enormous cost of maintaining a full-time garrison in Gibraltar soon proved an unbearable financial burden for the duke. In 1474, he struck a remarkable deal: Gibraltar was effectively sold to 4,350 Jewish conversos from Córdoba and Seville, led by Pedro de Herrera, in exchange for their commitment to man and maintain the town’s garrison.

The conversos fulfilled their side of the bargain faithfully. The castle was repaired, the dockyard expanded, and under Jewish enterprise, Gibraltar’s economy thrived. Tuna fishing and wine production became the pillars of a newfound prosperity.

But this very success sowed the seeds of their downfall. Barely two years later, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, under the pretext of preparing for an attack on Ceuta, marched into Gibraltar and expelled all Jews from the city.¹⁶

Joaquín Turina- La expulsión de los judíos de Sevilla.

Gibraltar remained in private hands for another twenty-five years. In 1501, Isabella I of Castile issued a Royal Warrant granting Gibraltar the coat of arms she herself had designed, which the city continues to use to this day.

With the fall of Granada in 1492, the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula was complete, and Isabella fully recognised Gibraltar’s growing strategic importance. In granting the new Royal Arms, she included the following clause in the preamble:

‘…we, deeming it right, and acknowledging that the said City is very strong and by its situation is the key between these our kingdoms in the Eastern and Western Seas and the sentinel and defense of the Strait of the said Seas through which no ships or peoples of either of these Seas can pass to the other without sighting it or calling at it.¹⁷

Under the Spanish Crown, Gibraltar never regained the economic vitality it had enjoyed under the conversos or the Dukes of Medina Sidonia. Its proximity to the Barbary Coast made it vulnerable to corsair raids, and few people were willing to settle there. Instead, the population increasingly consisted of religious zealots and convicts, who were offered residence in Gibraltar as an alternative to imprisonment or execution.

The tenth siege of Gibraltar was not mounted by the Moors across the Straits, but by Juan Alonso, Duke of Medina Sidonia, seeking to reclaim the city he had ceded to the Crown years earlier. In 1506, sensing confusion following the death of Isabella I and the ascension of her daughter Juana (later known as La Loca), Medina Sidonia marched on Gibraltar expecting a warm welcome from his former subjects. Instead, the inhabitants refused him entry. A brief, ineffective four-month blockade ensued, after which Medina Sidonia lifted the siege, ending his final attempt to recover the city. In recognition of Gibraltar’s loyalty, Queen Juana conferred upon the city the title of “Most Loyal.”

Original arms granted to Gibraltar by Isabella I of Castile.

Rather than investing in Gibraltar’s defences, the Crown allowed much of the castle and sea walls—especially to the south—to fall into disrepair. Almost thirty-five years of relative peace lulled the population into a false sense of security.

That illusion ended in 1540, when around 100 Moorish slaves and Christian renegades escaped from Gibraltar and fled to Algiers. There, the Christian renegade Caramani persuaded Hassan Aga, lieutenant to the infamous Ottoman admiral Barbarossa, of Gibraltar’s vulnerable state. Caramani was given command of a raiding force of 2,000 corsairs aboard sixteen galleys, including about 1,000 Christian slaves. On 10 September 1540, this combined force of Turkish pirates, under Caramani and Ali Amete, attacked the city. Contemporary chronicler Pedro Barrantes Maldonado recorded the terrifying assault as follows:¹⁸

“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.”

Barrantes describes how the cannon on the castle’s platforms, though well supplied with shot and gunpowder, could not be brought into action because there were no artillerymen available to operate them. Even if they had been ready, the attack was so sudden that there would have been no time to load and fire the guns.

He also notes that the Calahorra Tower was well stocked with weapons—including shotguns, arquebuses, and crossbows—but none of these were deployed to the castle’s main defences. As Barrantes observed, “the Turks did not wait too much”, and the speed of the assault left the defenders unable to respond effectively.¹⁹

The panic caused by the unexpected raid is intimately detailed by Barrantes who in the process provides some unwitting testimony of the castle’s defences during the attack. For example, he describes how 28 women, unable to gain access to the castle drowned in the ravelin that stood directly in front of the castle gates, in all probability referring to one of the two gates leading up to La Barcina and Villavieja. Barrantes described how the Turks had made their way up ‘the road of the hill’²⁰

this road probably refers to Engineer Lane that led up a hill to La Plaza de la Verdura (Cornwall’s Parade) and continued up Calle Cordoneros (Governor’s Street).

Barrantes also recounts how one of the principal lieutenants of the Turkish raiders, Mucarred, was killed by two arrows fired from one of the corner towers overlooking the gate. Remarkably, one of these arrows was shot by a local innkeeper, Juan Mateos. Years later, Mateos became a monk and converted his house into a hospital for those suffering from syphilis, a facility that remained in use for over 400 years.

The Turkish pirates caused considerable destruction in the suburbs of La Turba, capturing 79 residents, yet they never managed to scale or breach the castle walls. According to Barrantes, the captives were eventually ransomed by the town of Tarifa and, after being transported to North Africa, made their way back to Gibraltar.

Caramani’s fleet ultimately failed to profit from the raid. Intercepted by a Castilian fleet in the Alboran Sea, his flagship was boarded, Caramani was killed, one galley sunk, and ten captured. As a result, 800 Christian slaves were freed, and 400 corsairs were taken prisoner, ending the raid in total failure for the attackers.²¹

The shock of the Corsiar raid led to further improvements of the Rock’s fortifications. Of particular note was the construction of South Bastion in 1540, the same year the raid took place. Seventeen years later, the southern section of the town was further reinforced by the construction of Charles V Wall, extending from South Bastion all the way up to the top of the Rock.

Luis Bravo de Acuña map of 1627 showing the extension and reinforcement of the town's southern defences.

With the construction of the southern wall, the Tower of Homage was no longer threatened by attacks from the high ground. The advent of cannon did, however, transform the castle’s defensive design: the old medieval towers were gradually dismantled and replaced by bastions and platforms along the western sea wall, as well as strengthened land fortifications to the north. Despite these improvements, Spain failed to learn from earlier lessons. As sections of the medieval sea wall continued to deteriorate, complacency once again proved a fatal weakness.

The Anglo-Dutch attack on Gibraltar in 1704 was essentially one-sided—not because the defenders lacked courage, but because the fortress lacked sufficient cannon and garrison to mount an effective defence. Constant bombardment by the enemy fleet caused the fragile walls near the Red Sands to crumble, allowing Captain Jumper’s marines to pour through the breach. The most deadly event of the day was the explosion of the powder magazine at the Torre del Tuerto, located at the New Mole, which accounted for most allied casualties—between 100 and 200 sailors and marines were killed or injured.

With Gibraltar cut off from communications to the north and facing English, Dutch, and Catalan marines from the south, the castle surrendered without seeing sustained combat. That trial came later when French and Spanish forces counter-attacked, battering the landward approaches, which were defended by only a small garrison of sailors and soldiers. During this period, the Tower of Homage served primarily as an observation post, directing fire from the land batteries below, as too few guns had been brought up to make the high ground fully effective. Nevertheless, some artillery was hauled to the Salto del Lobo (Princess Caroline’s) area by Captain Willis, whose name would later be given to the road he constructed behind the tower up to the flats above.

By 1727, Gibraltar’s northern defences had been substantially upgraded, including a new glacis, ditch, and mines protecting the approaches to the Landport and Grand Battery. Willis’s Batteries were expanded to provide additional flanking fire. During the brief 13th Siege of 1727, the Tower of Homage’s northern and eastern faces were particularly exposed to Spanish fire from the isthmus, notably from Fort Santa Barbara along the Eastern Beach. The old sally port, which later became a doorway leading to a hoarding or wooden walkway, was probably destroyed during this siege and the original entrance sealed. According to Lt. Col. James in his History of the Herculean Straits (1771), the current entrance was created by British troops in 1727 to extend the castle’s northern defences.²²

Other guns were located at the platforms of the castle’s northern boundary walls starting at Crutchett’s

View of the North Front of the Mountain of Gibraltar, William Test, 1779.

The Moorish Castle as a ruin, William Mein Smith, 1830s.

The Tower of Homage showing the blind arches, David Roberts, 1833.

Thomas James, writing in 1751 gave a very detailed account of the tower of Homage:²³

Many reservoirs, baths, and arched galleries are in these castles, especially the upper one, where are foundations of great ruins, and some superstructures, that are explained in the plan. In the north east angle of this upper castle is what I call the upper tower, which you enter through an arched stone barrier, which at right angles turns to the right. A loophole commands the entrance, at eight feet nine inches, and another the turn to the right. The covering is covered with a cupola. After you enter the barrier, you are enclosed within a wall that has a rampart of four feet broad, with thirty -one portholes, and twelve loopholes; and a semi-circular tower in the centre of this wall. Under the rampart are nine arched casemates with large loopholes for arrows to pass. From the above outward entrance you come into a second barrier, that has an octagonal cupola very neat. There formerly were three passages from this small square; (for the ground plot under each cupola is square) that which fronts the entrance at eleven feet distance, was by the Moors stopped up: and that which leads to the left, is an arched brick gallery of eighteen feet in length, under which the king's (or governor’s) guards and servants entered.

That to the left was a winding square staircase, up which none went but the royal family, and their friends. Over every landing place, which are square, are cupolas of various forms, all built of brick, and differing from each other, and at the same time very neat, and peculiar to the Moorish taste, yet strike the beholder’s eye with pleasure. There are loopholes on each landing pace, fronting the enemy, which give light to the stairs, and at the same time serves for a defence. On the third landing place is an inner barrier that leads into a noble yet uncommon courtyard, as does likewise the gallery through which the soldiers, etc., passed. Round this courtyard are twelve pillars of brick, each of which are in this form [cross-shaped], so that in fact each pillar is five, which I suppose was done to give the building a lighter look; beside these pillars, there are eight imports, that, with the pillars, supported brick arches, which bear a terrace walk. The centre of this yard was open at top, which gave light to the whole, as no openings were left in the wall that surrounded this court. In this yard are two arched rooms, each thirteen feet broad by twenty-four feet long; these rooms were for the governor’s guards to sleep in.

Returning back to the king’s stair-case, you ascend to the above terrace supported by brick arches that spring from the above pillars and imports. This terrace is twenty-four feet high from the base of the pillars.

On the top of the staircase, which leads on the terrace, was a square tower, with loopholes; and under the upper platform of this tower is an arched room with loopholes, and another room under that. An arched gallery, declining from the top of this terrace, went by the door of the upper room, where was a barrier that led on the rampart of the upper castle wall, as does another gallery at the back of the king’s staircase; so that off this terrace you could once have walked quite round the upper castle. From this terrace between two thin walls, you enter on another platform, twenty feet broad by sixty feet long. This terrace is over the guard rooms already mentioned. On this platform are two small square holes, each three by two, and made originally by the moors, designing either to call their officers, or to send and receive dispatches, because it looks down into the guardrooms. Eight feet from the easternmost hole is another barrier or entrance (that leads to the upper tower,) arched, and after you have entered ten feet, another door place opens to the right. After you have entered, you then turn again to the right four feet, where you meet another strong arched barrier, which, when entered , you descend eight steps, (or twelve feet) then inclining eleven feet to the left, you arrive at a sally port, to the back of the tower, that fronts the hill. This sally port was closed by the English. From the above entrance to the sally port, the roofs are arched so as to answer to the galleries. On the left of the first barrier is an arched entrance, over which is a cupola; this is a small square of four feet, and on the right of the square is another arched door place. After passing through it, you ascend round a square newel, which is open to the top that gives light to the whole square winding staircase. Over each of these landing places are cupolas, or coves of various forms, with long arches or galleries, from one landing place to the other. When you have ascended some height, there is a door on your left, another on your right, and one in front. That on your left leads to the king’s apartments as follow. After you enter a small square of five feet and a half, by five and a half. Still on your left, you enter another door, directly before which, at ten feet distance, you enter another door to the king's hot bath. The dressing room is fifteen feet, by five and a half; this room was divided in the lengthways, where are three doors, the first fronting the entering door of the long dressing room , all narrow and low , the better to keep in the heat . Those rooms, which held the furnace and hot water, being half the length of the dressing room, and the bagnio [bath] the other half, which has a small low door into the room where the furnace was lighted. The bagnio has a cupola, with holes through the top to let the steams through.

Returning out of the dressing room, and on your left, under an arch of seventeen feet and a half broad, you enter a room of ten feet each way. Under this room, which is covered, is a square reservoir of the same dimensions, which was always kept full of water. On the left of this room is the entrance into the king’s apartments, which is ten feet square, with a handsome cupola on the top. This room was the mosque, and fronting [it] is an arch of the same dimensions as the former, through which is a room with a window that fronts the Mosque, and on the fourth part of the square is a porch that leads into the king and queen’s dressing room, which is twenty-four feet and a half, by nine feet, and is covered. At the end of the above room, and in the same line with the mosque, is the bed chamber covered, fronting the door, and at the end of the dressing room a window gives light to both the apartments, as does the former, the mosque, etc. There is no communication between the bedchamber and mosque, but through the square room and dressing room.

The door fronting the landing place of the stairs leads upon a battlement, which has turrets and loop holes. This rampart commands the terrace walk, likewise the courtyard where the guards were kept, and the three castles under it, also the front of the south-east face of the scarp wall of the upper castle, and the sally port already mentioned. This terrace rampart slopes from the parapet to the upper tower, in order to collect the rains, which run through an earthen pipe of six inches diameter into the reservoir, under the square rooms that joins to the mosque and the dressing room already mentioned. The north-west part of this rampart flanks the north-east wall of the under castle. Returning back to the stairs, you still ascend round the newel on four landing places, after which you arrive on the upper terrace, and on top of the tower. At five feet distance from the top of these stairs is an earthen pipe of the same dimensions as that below. This pipe collects the rains that fall on this upper flat, it is fed into the wall, and runs perpendicular down to the rampart at five feet distance from that which leads to the reservoir.

The upper terrace is thirty-nine feet high from the foundation on the south side, forty-nine on the east, twenty-seven on the north, and forty on the west. On this terrace is a rampart parapet and loopholes. There are two Moorish inscriptions, one on the battlement near the mosque, and the other at the entrance of the upper castle, which inscriptions being very much defaced, and in old Arabic characters, few Moors could read them, and to say true, not any, until I took the following method. An Algerian Moor being confined in the upper castle, I waited on him to get a translation of those inscriptions, which he not only read but likewise wrote in Spanish. Pleased with this success, I returned to Mr. Benedict (a very sensible Jew) acquainting him of my success in part, not taking any notice of my having them in writing. Upon which the above gentleman introduced me to a learned young Moor belonging to Tangiers (a son of the late basha Hamet) who held the prisoner in great contempt in regard to his knowledge. He went with me and the Jew up to the castle, read and wrote the inscriptions before the imprisoned Moor was sent for, then I showed the first copy, which agreed with young Hamet's in every point except the king 's name. The prisoner insisted that Bene-has-fin was the king's name, and Hamet Ebn Al Hejaj, who, by dint of argument, prevailed. The inscriptions copied from the castle are as follow: beginning from your right hand. This inscription is upon the outside of the battlement of the upper tower:

This long inscription is over the gate at the entrance of the upper castle. The under Arabic inscriptions were both written by Hamet on the spot.

The above Arabic is pronounced by the Moors as follows:

‘El nesru Vel temyedo Vel Fetch el Mubin ly mulana, Aby Abdilahy, amir el muselmin Mulana Aby Al Hajaj Ebn Yusef Amir el Muselmin Ebn mulana Aby Al Walid. nasaru alah’

This is on the upper castle, and in English is: ‘Prosperity and peace to our sovereign, and slave of God, king of the Moors, our sovereign Aby Al Hajaj, son of Joseph king of the Moors, son of our sovereign Aby Al Walid, whom God preserve.’

That on the upper tower, as follows:

‘Lilah el Afiyatu el Afiya. Lilah el Boqui yatu el Boquiya. El Boquiatu, Lilah el Afiyatu el Afiya.’

In English:

‘To the God that pacifies, and of peace, and to the God that lasts for ever.’

The view from the top of the Castle, Thomas Staunton St Claire 1830s.

Western side of the Tower of Homage showing the blind arch above the tower entrance, circa 1870s.

According to Leopoldo Torres Balbás the position of this great tower in relation to the alcazaba, which lies at its base and in turn overlooks the old city walls, is similar to that of the Torre de la Vela in the Alhambra, the Torre del Homenaje in Málaga, and the albarrana tower of Alcalá de Guadaíra, each standing watch over and protecting their respective fortresses and towns—although each presents variations imposed by the different terrain on which they stand.

However, while in those other castles the main keep could be built on the highest point of the hill on which they stand, in Gibraltar the Calahorra was built on the slope of a very high mountain. Although this made it possible for the Calahorra, the last stronghold of the fortress, to dominate the alcazaba, the town, and the port, it was itself overlooked by the continuation of the mountainside above it, from which it could be easily bombarded.

This was the weak point of Gibraltar’s defensive system. For this reason, the Muslims built this very strong tower in that location, shaped like the prow of a ship, and from it—at an almost right angle, with the tower at the vertex—they raised two walls that ran down the steep slope and enclosed the triple walls of the alcazaba. The Calahorra, the last and strongest redoubt, was connected to the rest of the fortress almost solely at this point.

This is why all those who attempted to capture Gibraltar, whether Christian or Muslim, always sought to climb the mountain and bombard the alcazaba from the higher ground above it—a fact borne out both by historical accounts and by the scars that still mark the walls of the Calahorra.²⁴