Battle of Cartagena (1758)

The Battle of Cartagena was a naval battle fought on 3 September 1643, during the Thirty Years' War off Cabo de Gata near Cartagena, Spain. After a series of victories in 1641 and 1642 the French Navy dominated the Western Mediterranean Sea. France was also in control of most of Catalonia after the Catalan Revolt. At that time, the Spanish Navy did not dare to show itself off the Catalan coast. In 1643 the French admiral Jean Armand de Maillé-Brézé sailed south, to search for and destroy the Spanish fleet to extend the dominance of the French Navy in the Mediterranean. He found a fleet of Dunkirkers under Joos Petersen, ships from Naples and a squadron from the Mar Oceano fleet under Martín Carlos de Mencos. On 3 September at 7:00 AM Maillé-Brézé attacked with favorable winds and dispersed the enemy fleet. He sank 2 galleons and captured 2 others, while the rest of the Spanish fleet retreated into the port of Cartagena. Here 8 more ships were beyond repair and sank. The port was closed by the Duke of Fernandina and no Spanish ship left the harbour for more than a year. All commerce between Spain and Italy was thus made impossible. The victory was short-lived for the French, however, as Spanish dominance in the region returned when the French fleet declined after the death of Cardinal Richelieu.

Cartagena (Spanish pronunciation: [kaɾtaˈxena]) is a Spanish city and a major naval station on the Mediterranean coast, south-eastern Iberia. As of January 2018, it has a population of 218,943 inhabitants. This makes Cartagena Murcia's second-largest municipality and Spain's sixth-largest city that is not a provincial-capital. The wider urban or metropolitan area of Cartagena, known as Campo de Cartagena, has a population of 409,586 inhabitants. Cartagena has been inhabited for over two millennia, being founded around 227 BC by the Carthaginian Hasdrubal the Fair as Qart Hadasht (Phoenician: 𐤒𐤓𐤕𐤟𐤇𐤃𐤔𐤕 QRT𐤟ḤDŠT; meaning "New Town"), the same name as the original city of Carthage. The city had its heyday during the Roman Empire, when it was known as Carthago Nova (the New Carthage) and Carthago Spartaria, capital of the province of Carthaginensis. Much of the historical significance of Cartagena stemmed from its coveted defensive port, one of the most important in the western Mediterranean. Cartagena has been the capital of the Spanish Navy's Maritime Department of the Mediterranean since the arrival of the Spanish Bourbons in the 18th century. As far back as the 16th century it was one of the most important naval ports in Spain, together with Ferrol in the North. It is still an important naval seaport, the main military haven of Spain, and is home to a large naval shipyard.The confluence of civilizations, its strategic harbor, and the influence of the local mining industry have led to a unique historic, architectural and artistic heritage. This heritage is reflected in a number of landmarks of Cartagena, including the Roman Theatre, an abundance of Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine and Moorish remains, and a plethora of Art Nouveau buildings from the early 20th century. Cartagena is now established as a major cruise ship destination in the Mediterranean and an emerging cultural focus. It was the first of a number of cities that have been named Cartagena, most notably Cartagena, Colombia.

The battle of New Carthage took place in early 209 BC when a Roman army under Publius Cornelius Scipio successfully assaulted New Carthage, the capital of Carthaginian Iberia, which was defended by a garrison under Mago. The battle was part of the Second Punic War. In 211 BC the Romans in Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) were heavily defeated at the battle of the Upper Baetis. Reinforcements arrived in early 210 BC and Scipio brought further reinforcements when he took command late in the year. Scipio felt unable to draw into battle and defeat any of the three strong Carthaginian armies in the peninsula and so decided to strike at the material centre of Carthaginian power in Iberia: its capital, New Carthage. He arrived outside the city early in 209 BC and commenced his attack the next day. After defeating a Carthaginian force outside the walls, he pressed an attack on the east gate. Simultaneously men from the Roman ships attempted to escalade the wall to the south from the harbour area. Both attacks were repulsed. In the afternoon Scipio renewed the attacks. Hard-pressed, Mago moved men from the north wall, which overlooked a broad, shallow lagoon. Anticipating this, Scipio sent a force of 500 men through the lagoon to scale the north wall, which they did unopposed. They fought their way to the east gate, opened it from inside and let in their comrades. New Carthage fell and was sacked, and Mago surrendered the citadel and the last of his troops. Vast amounts of precious metal and war materiel were seized. New Carthage became the logistics centre of the Roman war effort in Iberia and by 206 BC the Carthaginians had been expelled from the peninsula.

The Roman Theatre is an ancient Roman theatre in Cartagena, Spain.

The Cathedral of Cartagena in Spain, or the Cathedral of Santa María la Vieja, was a cathedral of the Diocese of Cartagena, located on the hill of La Concepción in the old town of Cartagena. It has been in ruins since 1939, when it was destroyed when Cartagena was shelled in the Spanish Civil War by Nationalist forces.

The Monument to the Heroes of Cavite and Santiago de Cuba (Spanish: Monumento a los Héroes de Cavite y Santiago de Cuba) is an instance of public art and war memorial in Cartagena, Spain. It commemorates the role of the naval squadrons commanded by Patricio Montojo and Pascual Cervera during the 1898 Spanish–American War.

The National Museum of Subaquatic Archaeology (Spanish: Museo Nacional de Arqueología Subacuática - ARQVA) in Cartagena (Murcia), Spain is an underwater archaeology museum. It owns a large collection of pieces recovered from shipwrecks that begins in the Phoenician period, and arrives until the 19th century.On December 2, 2012, the 14.5 tons cargo of gold and silver coins recovered from the wreck of the frigate Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes was deposited in the museum for cataloging, study and permanent display.

The Cartagena Naval Museum is a military museum near the city port of Cartagena, Spain. It presents exhibitions related to naval construction. It is a subsidiary of the Naval Museum of Madrid.

Despeñaperros Castle, also known as San José Castle, is a castle built in the 11th century in the historic center of Cartagena, Murcia Region in Spain. It was declared a cultural site on 7 August 1997. The walls are composed of masonry and generally flat. The interior of the fortification is divided in two perimeters, the lower with rooms for the occupants and a water reservoir, and an upper space occupied by the cannons, and which has lost gunships.

The Punic wall of Cartagena (Spanish: Muralla púnica de Cartagena) is an archaeological site from the 3rd century BC in which can be seen the first defensive wall of Cartagena, built by the Carthaginians. This is an important site because it is one of the few remains of Carthaginian civilization in Spain, and the walls bear witness to one of the most important events of Ancient history in the Mediterranean Sea: the Second Punic War.

The Cartagena Naval Base, also known as Arsenal of Cartagena, is a military base and arsenal of the Spanish Navy located in the city of Cartagena. It is one of the oldest naval bases in Spain, having been created in the 18th century. Located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, it is the main Spanish base in the Mediterranean Sea.

Cartagena railway station is the main railway station in the Spanish city of Cartagena in the Region of Murcia. It is the terminus of the Chinchilla–Cartagena railway, and the current station building opened in 1903.