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forcing the local population to flee the city and take refuge in different places, largely in the vicinity of the Chapel of San Roque –origin of what is now San Roque– and Algeciras, depopulated and nearly in ruins by that time. The Spanish attempts to recover the Rock started immediately after it was lost and were to last a long time.

After Utrecht, which officially sanctioned the British sovereignty of the Rock –as was originally the case with Menorca–, came a period in which diplomacy was the preferred route (281). The negotiations failed, however, and the second siege of Gibraltar (282, 283, 284) took place on February 11, 1727, by a powerful army commanded by the Count of Torres. After several fruitless months, the situation was solved diplomatically when Spain announced the armistice on June 23, 1727.

For the next half century, a period of tense calm was used by one side and the other to reinforce and improve their fortifications (134, 285, 16, 286). In 1728, Philip V decided to formalise the borders established in Utrecht and ordered the creation of a fortified line as established in the Peace Treaty. The design and undertaking of the project was commissioned from the chief engineer, Prosper Verboom, who drew the “Gibraltar Line”, a fortification linking both sides of the isthmus to two important forts, San Felipe in the east and Santa Barbara in the west. The Line was not concluded until 1735 and its construction process is amply represented in this collection (161, 223, 222, 224, 15, 287, 137, 288, 163).

Armed activity aimed at recovering the rock recommenced in 1779 with the third siege. This attempt was not successful either and it merely maintained the siege