Portal:Gibraltar

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The Gibraltar Portal

Location of Gibraltar (dark green)

United Kingdom shown in pale green

Gibraltar (/dʒɪˈbrɔːltər/ ^ⓘ jib-RAWL-tər, Spanish: [xiβɾalˈtaɾ]) is a British Overseas Territory and city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean (Strait of Gibraltar). It has an area of 6.8 km² (2.6 sq mi) and is bordered to the north by Spain (Campo de Gibraltar). The landscape is dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar, at the foot of which is a densely populated town area, home to some 34,003 people, primarily Gibraltarians.

Gibraltar was founded as a permanent watchtower by the Almohads in 1160. It switched control between the Nasrids, Castilians and Marinids in the Late Middle Ages, acquiring larger strategic clout upon the destruction of nearby Algeciras c. 1375. It became again part of the Crown of Castile in 1462. In 1704, Anglo-Dutch forces captured Gibraltar from Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession, and it was ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. It became an important base for the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars and World War II, as it controlled the narrow entrance and exit to the Mediterranean Sea, the Strait of Gibraltar, with half the world's seaborne trade passing through it.

The sovereignty of Gibraltar is a point of contention in Anglo-Spanish relations as Spain asserts a claim to the territory. Gibraltarians overwhelmingly rejected proposals for Spanish sovereignty in a 1967 referendum, and for shared sovereignty in a 2002 referendum. Nevertheless, Gibraltar maintains close economic and cultural links with Spain, with many Gibraltarians speaking Spanish as well as a local dialect known as Llanito. (Full article...)

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Main room of Operation Tracer's Stay Behind Cave

Operation Tracer was a secret Second World War Royal Navy military operation in Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory and military base. The impetus for the stay-behind plan was the 1940 scheme by Germany to capture Gibraltar, code-named Operation Felix. Operation Tracer was the brainchild of Rear Admiral John Henry Godfrey, the Director of the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty.

In 1941, Godfrey decided to establish at Gibraltar a covert observation post that would remain operational even if Gibraltar fell to the Axis powers. Movements of enemy vessels would be reported to the United Kingdom. Godfrey requested the assistance of several distinguished consultants to bring the plan to fruition. The plan was so secret that Godfrey held meetings with his consultants at his private residence rather than at Whitehall. (Full article...)

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Map credit: Eric Gaba

Situated on a narrow rocky promontory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula; the Rock of Gibraltar formed one of the Pillars of Hercules.

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“

Gibraltar is a place which Englishmen ought to know and to revere. It affords at once a monument of her past deeds and a proof of her present power.

”

— Lord St. Vincent's biographer, 1838.

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Portrait of George Don

General Sir George Don GCB GCH (30 April 1756 – 17 January 1832) was a senior British Army military officer and colonial governor during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His service was conducted across Europe, but his most important work was in military and defensive organisation against the threat of French invasion during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Don was also frequently requested for advisory and espionage work by British generals and was once employed by the Prussian State as a spy. In 1799 he was arrested during a truce by Guillaume Brune who accused him of attempting to foment rebellion in the Batavian Republic and was not released until the Peace of Amiens. During and following the wars, Don also served as Lieutenant Governor of Jersey and Governor Gibraltar, implementing organizational reforms with much success in both places. (Full article...)

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Peter Caruana Joe Bossano George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield Edward Cornwallis Joshua Hassan Bruce Cooper Alfred Holmes Alexander George Woodford Sir William Green, 1st Baronet John Thomas Jones Clive Finlayson Simón Susarte John Mackintosh (philanthropist) John Leake John Vereker, 6th Viscount Gort

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Did you know...

... that Dorothy Ellicott was the first woman to be elected to two different Gibraltar Councils and was posthumously awarded the Gibraltar Medallion of Honour on Gibraltar National Day 2008?
... that in 1939, excavations beneath John Mackintosh Square in Gibraltar for the construction of an air-raid shelter revealed no signs of any foundations, suggesting it has always been an open square?
... that capital punishment in Gibraltar was last enforced in 1944 when British hangman Albert Pierrepoint travelled undercover to the territory to hang two young Spanish spies? (25 July 2012, 5,697 views)
... that the Gibraltar Museum houses the remains of a 14th-century Moorish bath house, once the private baths of the Governor of Gibraltar during the Marinid dynasty? (26 July 2012, 2,222 views)
... that the Europa Point Lighthouse at Gibraltar is the only lighthouse operated by Trinity House on continental Europe outside the United Kingdom? (27 July 2012, 4,122 views)
... that Giovanni Battista Calvi was an Italian military engineer who worked on many important Spanish defensive projects in the 1500s, to include those in the now British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar?

General images

The following are images from various Gibraltar-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Thousands of Gibraltarians dress in their national colours of red and white and fill Grand Casemates Square during the 2013 Gibraltar National Day celebrations (from Culture of Gibraltar)
Image 2Traffic drives on the right (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 3Gibraltar's country identifier is GBZ (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 4A 1779 depiction of British-controlled Gibraltar, under siege from Franco-Spanish forces. (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 5Gibraltar Airport and border area. Showing runway (Gibraltar) and pier behind (Spain). Officially, any exact line is still disputed (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 6Vice Admiral Sir Neville Syfret inspecting the men aboard the Rodney, Gibraltar, January 1943 (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 7Annotated satellite view of the Strait of Gibraltar (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 8The Pillars of Hercules depicted erroneously as an island on the Tabula Peutingeriana, an ancient Roman map (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 9The Sortie made by the Garrison of Gibraltar in the Morning of 27 November 1781 by John Trumbull, depicting a British attack that occurred during the Great Siege of Gibraltar (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 10Gibraltar Bus Company Dennis Dart on route 4 at the Both Worlds bus terminus, Sandy Bay. (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 11The Gibraltar House of Assembly (now the Gibraltar Parliament), established in 1969. (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 12The First Battle of Algeciras (6 July 1801) off Gibraltar, portrayed in Algéciras, 6 Juillet 1801 by Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 13Veüe du d'Estroit de Gibraltar et des Environs, avec les tranchées du Siège mis en 1704, by Louis Boudan (1704) (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 14A current Gibraltar rear number plate featuring the country identifier GBZ (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 15Gibraltar Bus Company bus routes (right-click to enlarge). (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 16The United States' Great White Fleet visiting Gibraltar harbour in February 1909 (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 17"Gibraltar Woman" – a Neanderthal who lived in Gibraltar some 50,000 years ago (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 18A map of Gibraltar and its fortifications, drawn in 1799 by Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 19Foreign Secretary William Hague and Minister for Europe David Lidington with Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo at a meeting in London, 28 August 2013 (from Culture of Gibraltar)
Image 20The Charles V Wall, built by the Spanish to control access to the south side of Gibraltar after the pirate raid of September 1540 (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 21Searchlights on the Rock of Gibraltar during an air raid practice on 20 November 1942 (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 22Aerial view of Gibraltar as seen in 2011 (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 23North View of Gibraltar from Spanish Lines by John Mace (1782) (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 24Gibraltar Cable Car (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 25Spanish border pass for Gibraltarian residents, permitting day visits only. (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 26View across Gibraltar looking north, by Frederick William J. Shore (1883) (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 27The arms granted to the city of Gibraltar by a Royal Warrant passed in Toledo on 10 July 1502 by Isabella I of Castile (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 28Castle Street, Gibraltar, by Frederick Leeds Edridge, 1833 (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 29The Explosion of the Spanish Flagship during the Battle of Gibraltar by Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 30Special passes were required to enter Gibraltar proper at night, whilst the Spanish civil war was raging 1936. (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 31Gibraltar's Royal Navy Base (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 32Calypso Transport open top bus on discontinued route 10 (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 33Location of Gibraltar in the far south of the Iberian Peninsula (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 34Gibraltar's Moorish Baths, now incorporated into the Gibraltar Museum (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 35Gibraltar, 1654 by Jan Peeters I (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 36MV Aurora (2000) berthed adjacent to the Gibraltar Cruise Terminal at the Western Arm of the North Mole (from Transport in Gibraltar)
Image 37The closed gates at the border between Gibraltar and Spain, 1977 (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 38The 14th-century Tower of Homage, the largest surviving fragment of Gibraltar's Moorish Castle (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 39Sir George Rooke, the commander of the Anglo-Dutch fleet that conquered Gibraltar in the name of Archduke Charles of Austria (from History of Gibraltar)
Image 40Timetable on a bus shelter (from Transport in Gibraltar)