The Hornabeque of La Mola

The image that this article illustrates corresponds to the entrance to the Hornabeque of the Isabel II Fortress, La Mola, an enclosure that has a wide and deep pit with entrance angles with gunboats and, in its central part, the Hornabeque, which reinforced the defense of land access to the fortress. The artillery of the different levels of fire defended the pit, with the lower levels, and the land accesses of the peninsula and maritime, with the upper levels. Noteworthy is the crenellated gallery, a corridor for riflemen almost half a kilometer long, which defended the moat and the covered path.

To solve the problem of water supply in the event of a site, a network of cisterns and rainwater conduction channels were built, which were collected in large cisterns, being previously drained and freed of impurities in several decanters.

The fortress of Isabel II is one of the last of that quality. Paradoxically, at its completion, after 20 years (1850-1870) of work and hardship, it had already become obsolete in the face of the impetuous development of new offensive weapons, the “artillery revolution”, and the advance of the navy.