Castillo de Alicante - History Lab https://historylab.es Wed, 18 May 2022 14:42:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 https://historylab.es/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-icono-historylab-32x32.jpg Castillo de Alicante - History Lab https://historylab.es 32 32 The castle of Alicante and its fortifications in 1709 https://historylab.es/the-castle-of-alicante-and-its-fortifications-in-1709/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-castle-of-alicante-and-its-fortifications-in-1709 Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:25 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/el-castillo-de-alicante-y-sus-fortificaciones-en-1709/ Plan showing the differentiated areas of Alicante Castle and its fortifications in 1709

The post The castle of Alicante and its fortifications in 1709 first appeared on History Lab.

]]> When the allied army took control of Alicante in the midst of the War of the Spanish Succession, they found weak and poorly planned fortifications that they had to carry out major works to improve. The priority was to repair the breaches that the British fleet had caused in its previous attack, and so it was.
A year later, when the French recaptured the town in 1708, they returned to work on the city’s defences, while devising a novel tactic to take control of the castle. The strategy was to build a mine to gain access from the base of the hillside to the castle at the top of the rocky mountain.
March 3, 1709 was the day chosen to detonate the mine, causing a huge explosion and killing 54 English soldiers stationed at the castle. Contrary to what the French commanders thought, the explosion made access to the castle even more difficult, as the extensive damage to the hillside continued to prevent upward entry.
It was not until 18 April that the capitulations were signed, with the English garrison leaving the castle with great military honours, which they would receive two days later, after more than a month under siege and managing the little water they had.

The post The castle of Alicante and its fortifications in 1709 first appeared on History Lab.

]]> Bastioned fortifications of Alicante, 1708-1709 https://historylab.es/bastioned-fortifications-of-alicante-1708-1709/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bastioned-fortifications-of-alicante-1708-1709 Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:25 +0000 https://historylab.es/2022/02/19/fortificaciones-abaluartadas-de-alicante-1708-1709/ Plan of Alicante between 1708 and 1709 showing the work carried out to fortify its bastions during the War of the Spanish Succession

The post Bastioned fortifications of Alicante, 1708-1709 first appeared on History Lab.

]]> During the War of the Spanish Succession, the allied troops carried out important fortification work in Alicante. By applying a bastioned line, they modified the line of defence of Alicante compared to the previous ones of Charles V, which resulted in a too static defence against an attack of a certain size, as the French troops demonstrated when they assaulted the city from the inside without great difficulty. The defences had been designed with a great deal of effort, and rather than a compact bastioned belt, it ended up as a thin wall with no interior ramparts.
One of the first French objectives was to build a new defensive layout that was more in line with the new military tactics of the time. The works, although they were never completed, were aimed at improving the previous irregular layout and dealing with its poor construction, giving Alicante’s fortifications a new defensive appearance. In the documents found, the most immediate repairs after taking the city are listed, including the repair of the walls and bastions, raising the parapets and making them 18 feet thick, once again pointing out the weakness of the previous constructions.
Outside the 16th-century enclosure, a seven-foot-high earthen trench with a bench was proposed to repel any possible landings, which, if the situation overtook them, would be helped by raising the height of the walls to the same level as the bastions and thus prevent the English from finding weak points, as they did when they managed to take the city.

The post Bastioned fortifications of Alicante, 1708-1709 first appeared on History Lab.

]]>