Landport (Gibraltar)

Landport
Part of Fortifications of Gibraltar
Grand Casemates Square, Gibraltar
Coordinates	36°08′43″N 5°21′05″W
Site information
Owner	Government of Gibraltar
Open to the public	Yes

The Landport (Spanish: Puerta de Tierra) is a gate into the territory of Gibraltar. It was originally the only entrance to the fortification from the land and so was heavily fortified and guarded.

Description

The tunnel to the gate inside the fortification.

After the territory was first captured from the Spanish in 1704, the British defended the Landport with twenty guns.^[1] The gate was subsequently defended by the Inundation — a flooded and fortified area of ground measuring about 200 yards (180 m) in length by about 60 yards (55 m) broad and was "nearly man-height" in depth.^[2] There were also obstacles in it such as chevaux de frise and metal hoops. There was also a moat covering the northern approach — the Landport Ditch. The ditch's defences included a palisade and a gunpowder mine which could be exploded beneath an assault.^[3] To cross these defences, there was a drawbridge which was pulled up at night. Tobacco smugglers would exit the gate at this time and lurk outside, waiting for an opportunity to cross the neutral ground into Spain during the night.^[4]

See also

• Grand Casemates Gates
• King James's and Landport Gates — similar gates in the port of Portsmouth
• Southport Gates

References

1. "Gibraltar", The Westminster Review, 78: 377, 1862
2. Cornwell, B. (1782). A Description of Gibraltar: with an account of the blockade, siege, the attempt by nine sail of fire ships, the sally made from the garrison, and every thing remarkable or worthy notice that has occurred in that place since the commencement of the Spanish war. London: B. Cornwell. p. 13.
3. A Description of Gibraltar, B. Cornwell, 1782, pp. 13–14
4. "A Stoppage in the Mountains of Andalusia", The New Monthly Magazine, 136, Chapman and Hall: 57, 1866