Resumen de La demolición de las murallas de Almería en la segunda mitad delsiglo XIX
Diego Garzón Osuna, Manuel Martín Martín
Two dates define the foundation of the city of Almería, the raising of its walls in 955, and its bourgeois urban reform in 1855, with the demolition of these defences. On the one hand, the military attack by the Fatimid fleet on the old enclave of Mariyyat al-Bayyana on 3 July 955, which caused the Caliphate fleet of al-Andalus moored in its dock to be set on fire. This event highlighted the defensive shortcomings of the main coastal enclaves of the Caliphate of ‘Abd al-Rahman III, which led to their reorganisation and fortification. The direct consequence of this affront to Almería, until then a port suburb of the neighbouring Bayyana (now Pechina), was its administrative independence and the new city became known as Madinat al-Mariyya. Along with its status as a city, the construction of a city wall and an al-Qasaba was quickly begun to provide a stable defence for the port, due to its geostrategic role in the Mediterranean as the eastern sea gateway to al-Andalus. The city and its walled defences grew with the commercial flourishing of the later Taifa (11th century) and Almohad (12th century) periods, and the defences of the city inherited by the Catholic Monarchs in 1489 were largely indebted to those periods of construction. The new Castilian administration tried to maintain and extend the old medieval defences of the city with little success. The destruction caused by the earthquakes that occurred between the end of the 15th century and the first quarter of the 16th century highlighted the vulnerability of these walls, most of which were built using the rammed earth technique. However, the refortification works were important, with the construction of a new wall on the eastern flank as well as the artillery bastions of the sea curtain. The other fundamental date for the urban development of the city was 19 July 1855, after the royal approval of the suppression of the military square of Almería and the approval of the State so that the city could demolish its old walls, thus accepting the municipal demand to undertake an urban reorganisation and widening for hygienic and sanitary reasons. Following this order, the demolition of the walls began rapidly, with ingenious procedures whereby private individuals could demolish large sections of the walls at their own expense in exchange for keeping the materials. In this way, the city shed the defensive gates and bastions that had defined its material history until then.
