Fortification of the Rock of Gibraltar
Original name
Antonelli’s fortifications of the Rock of Gibraltar
Geographic Area
Gibraltar, United Kingdom
Reference Project
Documentation of Antonelli’s fortifications
Site description
The Rock of Gibraltar rises on the West, on the European side, closing the Mediterranean basin, and
corresponds to the Phoenician Calpe, one of the two Hercules’ columns that in antiquity bordered the limit
of the world. Inhabited since prehistoric times, the small peninsula is characterized by a promontory with
cliffs overlooking the sea and it has an history intimately linked to its strategic position and therefore
characterized by military events and the development of fortifications to defend the important commercial
port and outpost control of Mediterranean. First military structures date back to Arab conquest even if not
much remains of the high-medieval fortresses, especially as result of numerous conquer wars that
alternated from 1309, when King of Castile Ferdinando IV tried to reclaim the peninsula, until 1501 when
the city was finally incorporated into the dominions of Queen Isabella of Castile. In 1552 Carlo I sent
Giovanni Battista Antonelli, an Italian military engineer at the service of Spanish Crown, to erect bastions
and a military wall to fortify the city. The remains of Antonelli’s fortresses are still visible today.
Credits
Coordinator
Sandro Parrinello
Partnership
UNIPV, University of Pavia
Survey Activities
Terrestrial Photogrammetry
Raffaella De Marco
Anna Dell’Amico
Francesca Picchio
Photo
Raffaella De Marco, Anna Dell’Amico, Francesca Picchio, Sandro Parrinello
Post production Activities
3D model
Anna Dell’Amico
- Gallery
- 3D Model
[metaslider id=”6340″]
Documentation Methodology
[supsystic-gallery id=112][supsystic-gallery id=117][supsystic-gallery id=113]
The first inspection (2017), aimed at analysis and documentation of the wall portions, he highlighted complexity of urban stratification e
territorial morphology for the recognition of
portions of the wall remained, often deconstructed with the insertion of the road system or incorporated within urban units and building complexes. The south bastion, in particular, encountered one perimeter development affected by steep height differences, starting from the altitude of
Regged Staff Gates reference with a first
level about 5 meters from Southport Gate and a second about 8 meters from Prince Edward’s Gate. The accessibility to the wall portions, given the morphological discontinuity of the land and the extension
presence of vegetation, has bound the
survey methodology for the acquisition
metrics, favoring the application of procedures
Structure from Motion photogrammetry from
manual chamber, allowing operators one
greater adaptability of shooting for return
overall of the fortified form. The area of
bastion was split into 4 chunks of
acquisition (Prince Edward Gate, the
Trafalgar cemetery, South Port Gate and the
portion of rampart of Ragged Staff Road),
individually processed in high-poly mode.
[supsystic-gallery id=114][supsystic-gallery id=115][supsystic-gallery id=116]
The
development of 3D model as a system
information for archiving metadata on
history of the fortresses of Gibraltar, that may be
asset protection instrument and through the
which to access historical information
on the individual bastions to be able to rebuild and enjoy
virtually a hypothetical path that you illustrate
the evolution of the defensive system, yes
configured as a research goal. In
this sense the three-dimensional model was
designed to provide a tool for
management of the walls, thinking about the possibilities of
fully evaluate the monumental value
of the ruins in order to foresee virtuous processes
of scheduled maintenance functional to
requalification of the wall system..
Bibliography
Parrinello, S., Picchio, F., De Marco, R., Dell’Amico, A. (2018). In Proceedigns of DEFENSIVE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN Vol. IX. A. Marotta, R. Spallone (Ed.) Sul limitare del Mediterraneo: Antonelli e la fortificazione di Gibilterra. (vol. IX, pp. 1083-1090). Politecnico di Torino. ISBN: 978-88-85745-12-4. ResearchGate
