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Despeñaperros Castle

Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Region of MurciaBuildings and structures in Cartagena, SpainCastles in the Region of Murcia
Castillodespenaperros
Castillodespenaperros

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.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Despeñaperros Castle (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Despeñaperros Castle
Callejón del Herrero, Cartagena

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 37.6026 ° E -0.9785 °
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Campus Muralla del Mar

Callejón del Herrero
30202 Cartagena (Diputación de Cartagena Casco)
Spain
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Cartagena, Spain
Cartagena, Spain

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.

Battle of New Carthage

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.