1-Day History Itinerary in Gibraltar

Gibraltar has been fought over, besieged, ceded, and reclaimed more than almost anywhere else in Europe. The physical evidence of all of it is still here: Moorish fortifications that predate the Crusades, the tunnels blasted by hand during the longest British siege ever, a World War II underground city, and the oldest Jewish synagogue in the British world. One serious day gets you through the highlights. Start at the Moorish Castle on the upper town. The Tower of Homage is the most visible part of the complex, sitting on the slope of the Rock above the town, and dates from the fourteenth-century reconstruction of an even earlier fortification. The Moors held Gibraltar from 711 until 1462. The views from the tower across the bay toward Algeciras make the strategic logic immediately obvious. From the castle, walk down through the old town to the Great Synagogue on Engineer Lane. Built in 1724, it is the oldest synagogue in Gibraltar and one of the finest Georgian-era synagogues in the British world. The Jewish community has been present in Gibraltar since at least the early eighteenth century. Then the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity on Cathedral Square, completed in 1832 in a style that blends Gothic revival with Moorish influences in a way that is uniquely Gibraltarian. The afternoon belongs to the Rock's military interior. The Great Siege Tunnels first: carved by hand into the limestone between 1779 and 1783 as the garrison tried to create gun positions that could fire westward across the isthmus during the fourteen-year siege. Then the World War II Tunnels, which dwarf them: a full underground network of roads, hospitals, ammunition stores, and command facilities bored out between 1939 and 1944. Trafalgar Cemetery to close, where the headstones of sailors who died in the aftermath of the 1805 battle still stand.