Cartagena Naval Base

The Cartagena Naval Base, also known as the 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.

History

The port of Cartagena, first founded by the Carthaginians in the 2nd century BC, occupies a strategic location on the Mediterranean Sea. It remained a commercial port until the reign of Philip V, when it was redeveloped as a major naval base alongside the expansion of the Spanish Navy.

Construction of the arsenal began in late 1731, and was completed in 1782, during the reign of Charles III. The final cost came to 112 million reales. The Cartagena naval base was a major industrial complex by the 18th century, with shipyards and workshops, carrying out carpentry, rigging and blacksmithing, as well as crafts and fine arts workshops to produce ship ornamentation and decoration. In the second half of the 18th century, 21 ships, 17 frigates and more than fifty brigs, xebecs, hulks, galleys, etc. were built there, as well as a large number of smaller vessels. The Arsenal employed several thousand people in the construction and the maintenance of the units of the Spanish Navy; the forced labour of slaves was also used in the Arsenal during the 18th century.