La Mola of Mahon Fortress and the Queens gold.

At the end of the turbulent XVIII century, King Carlos III of Spain ordered the demolition of the Saint Philip Castel, believing that if the English were deprived of such a stronghold they wouldn’t show any interest for Minorca. Port Mahon was left almost defenceless until the XIX century when the question of its security aroused once again. Finally the Spanish government decided to build a brand new fortress, this time in La Mola, just at the harbour’s mouth.

Works started in 1848 and lasted until 1875, when they came to a halt even when the fortress wasn’t utterly finished. The reason for such a sudden interruption was that La Mola, was already obsolete. The whole building had been designed for muzzle-loader guns like those known by Lord Nelson. That kind of guns had been used with no significant innovation since the middle ages. However, about 1860 artillery technology suffered an important revolution, with the advent of the new rifled breech loader gun. This kind of modern weapon, wasn’t loaded from its breech (at the front of the piece), but from the breech at the rear of the gun. In other words, the modern artillery was born, while the new fortress was being built.

The awesome fortress included several miles of underground galleries and its construction had been a heavy load for the Spanish Treasury. Queen Isabel II (the fortress is named after her) was quite conscious of such an effort. It’s being told that when the Queen inaugurated the construction, after descending from the barge that brought her there, while setting foot on the first step showed her surprise: “Oh it’s just stone. I believed they were made of gold!”

Nowadays, La Mola has no military function and it’s open to the public.

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