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Alameda Gardens
in Gibraltar
By Nick Nutter | 9 Jan 2021
Established by Commander Lieutenant Governor Sir George Don
The Alameda Gardens were established in 1816 by the Commander Lieutenant Governor Sir George Don to provide the public with a place of relaxation.
The gardens are laid out with interconnecting paths,
water features and terraced beds formed from the local
Jurassic limestone. At path junctions and other strategic
places, you will find guns and artillery, commemorating
Gibraltar’s military heritage. At the entrance are two of the
four Russian cannon given to Gibraltar by Britain, for
Gibraltar’s help during the Crimean War, in 1858.
George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield, PC, KB
In pride of place, atop a limestone column as you enter
the gardens from the Alameda car park, is a bust of
George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield, PC, KB. In
1777, Lieutenant-General Eliott was appointed Governor of
Gibraltar and was promoted to full General in 1778. The
following year Gibraltar was besieged by Spanish and
French troops. The siege lasted until 1783 when the
French and Spanish admitted defeat. Eliott was credited,
quite rightly, with holding the British forces together and
maintaining morale and his leadership qualities in actions
such as the ‘defeat of the floating batteries’. He was
invested as a Knight of the Bath immediately after what
became known as ‘The Great Siege’.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH,
PC, FRS is also honoured. His bust looks west over the
Naval Dockyard. Wellington was instrumental in throwing
the French out of Spain during the Peninsular War. His
actions during the Battle of Vitoria in 1813 where he
commanded a combined Spanish, Portuguese and British
forces against the French army led by Joseph Bonaparte
and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan earned him his promotion to Field Marshal. Following the battle many
British soldiers looted the French baggage train of over
one million pounds worth of booty, well over one hundred
million pounds today, causing Wellington to write his
famous line, “We have in the service the scum of the earth
as common soldiers”. He later, famously, defeated
Napoleon at Waterloo. After his military career, Wellington
went into politics and was Prime Minister from 1828 to
1830. In 1834 William IV dismissed the Whigs by a political
coup, summoning the duke to form a ministry, but the
65-year-old duke replied that Peel must be prime minister.
He was nominally Prime Minister for a little under one
month making this the shortest prime ministership in Great
Britain. Most quiz masters do not recognise Wellington and
nominate George Canning as the shortest serving Prime
Minister, April to August 1827.
Molly Bloom
Visitors may wonder at the statue of Molly Bloom and her
association with Gibraltar. Molly was a fictional character in
James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’. Gibraltar is one of the Pillars of
Hercules to which Odysseus (Roman Ulysses), sailed. The
1922 novel is about a very dreary, dull, post-war Dublin. In
the last pages of the book Molly gives a breathless
soliloquy, recalling her days in Gibraltar, ‘the sea crimson
sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the fig
trees in the Alameda gardens… and the rose gardens and
the jessamine [sic] and geraniums and cactuses…”, giving
a hopeful splash of colour and hope of a brighter future.
Giuseppe Codali
In the mid-19th Century, the Italian Giuseppe Codali
designed ‘The Dell’, an Italianate style garden that is best
viewed from the wisteria covered bridge above. The Dell is often the setting for wedding photographs with the
exceptionally beautiful large flowered hibiscus in the
background or the two Lord Howe Island Palms that
were donated to the gardens in 1941 by an elderly lady
on the eve of her evacuation during WWII.
The Gibraltar Botanic Gardens Project
From 1973 the gardens fell into a state of disrepair and
languished for almost twenty years.
The Gibraltar Botanic Gardens Project started in 1991. It
aims to restore the aesthetic beauty and interest of the
Alameda for the benefit of visitors to the gardens. The
impressive remit includes establishing a living collection
representative of Gibraltar and its hinterland and
displaying a collection of plants from Mediterranean
climatic zones around the world. The project aims to
contribute towards the conservation of the flora of
Gibraltar and its hinterland and establish a collection of
succulents from around the world. An active educational
programme contributes towards the dissemination of
information about plants, their economic value and their
conservation.
Dragon Trees
As you wander around the Alameda, you will find
continually changing vistas punctuated by the famous
Dragon Trees. The Dragon Tree comes from the Atlantic
Islands of the Canaries, Madeira and Cape Verde. It is a
member of the lily family, not a tree at all. The red resin,
known as Dragon’s Blood, crystallises and was used
medicinally. The smooth grey bark is reminiscent of an
elephant’s hide. Its panicles of showy white flowers
appear irregularly in summer and produce bright orange
berry-like fruit in winter. The oldest dragon tree in the
gardens is probably about 300 years old, predating the
gardens themselves. How they arrived there is a mystery.
They will be there long after we depart this world, they
are reputed to live for 1000 years.
Birds, Bats, Reptiles and Moths
The gardens are also packed with wildlife, helped by the
fact that only in extremis are pesticides and herbicides
used in the Alameda. Birds that nest in the garden
include Blackcaps and Sardinian Warblers. Hoopoes
pass through in spring and autumn. In winter Booted
Eagles have been known to hunt in the gardens whilst
kestrels can be seen all year. Reptiles include the
harmless Horseshoe Whip Snake and the Moorish Gecko
but it is the smallest mammals that thrive here. The
Pipistrelle Bat is the most common and is sometimes
about in the morning and late afternoons while the
gardens are open. At night it is the turn of Schreiber’s Bat
and the European Free-tailed Bat, fleeting shadows,
flitting between the trees in a frantic search for airborne
moths.
Go to: Gibraltar province
History in Gibraltar municipality
Operation Felix, the German plan to capture Gibraltar during WWII
Operation Ursa Major, an Italian operation to sink allied shipping at Gibraltar
Operation Tracer and the Stay Behind Tunnels
The 14 Sieges of Gibraltar
Treaty of Utrecht 1713
Redefining the Species - Calpe 2018
The WWII Evacuation of Gibraltar
Calpeia - the first Gibraltarian proves Neolithic people migrated to Andalucia
Gibraltar, Home to the Gorgon Medusa
Museums in Gibraltar municipality
A Guide to Gibraltar National Museum in Bomb House Lane
Places to go in Gibraltar municipality
Rockbuster - 100 Ton Gun
Coast and Beaches of Gibraltar
Kings Bastion Leisure Centre
The Legend of the Pillars of Hercules
Shrine of Our Lady of Europe
Trafalgar Cemetery
Gorhams Cave Viewing Platform
Irish Town, one of the oldest streets in Gibraltar
Great Siege Tunnels
The Jewish Cemetery
Tower of Homage
Walking in Gibraltar municipality
Mediterranean Steps and Douglas Path Walk
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The Rock from Bottom to Top
The Story of Gibarltar
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