De cerca medieval islámica a frente abaluartado: génesis y evolución del Frente de Tierra de Ceuta

Abstract

[EN] Ceuta is built on a peninsula at the southern shore of the Strait of Gibraltar. It’s a strategic point for communications between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean and between two continents: Europe and Africa. As Ceuta ships rule the Gibraltar Strait in Medieval and Modern Ages, main defensive efforts were tuned of to Land Front. Consequently, in 950 ‘Abd al-Rahman III built a new fence in order to protect the madina reusing Roman and Byzantine fortifications. Although repaired and enlarged by Almohads, Marinids, and Portuguese, these walls and towers protected the Land Front of Ceuta until the sixteenth century. But, at this moment, pirobalistic artillery development had made this defensive device obsolete and a new bastioned front, an early and outstanding example of the new Renaissance ideas for the defense of the cities, was built. Archival documents, cartographic sources, etc., let us follow the main lines of this evolution. Recently, an archaeological research project has added new data on how this evolution, from Medieval to Renaissance fortifications, took place.