A Spanish battery that is more than 200 years old was discovered in the northern Colombian city of Cartagena, El Heraldo reported Wednesday.
The battery was discovered by a local man who looked out from his balcony and noticed stones that looked like a wall arranged in a gull-wing pattern on the beach as the tide went out. A team of workers was sent to investigate and found the remains of an artillery battery built in the mid 18th century by Antonio de Arevalo, a famous military engineer who reinforced Cartagena’s famous Castle of San Felipe and served the Spanish Empire for 59 years.
Judith Pinedo, the mayor of Cartagena, was overjoyed at the discovery of the battery. “These bulwarks exist only on maps but no one had ever been given the task of searching for them,” said Pinedo. The mayor further stated that the site would be excavated and was located “just where we contemplated making a recreational area.”
Cartagena has many well preserved fortifications from its time as a strategic port in the Spanish Empire. The Castle of San Felipe which overlooks the city from a hill, has been listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.
The city has also been the location of many battles, as both the English and the French attempted to take the city away from Spain. The most famous battle occurred in the War of Jenkin’s Ear in 1741 when the Spanish decisively beat back a British landing force of more than 150 ships and 12,000 soldiers. The British lost nearly 50 ships with many heavily damaged.