Cartagena

For a long time the town stayed small, and even the bishop's seat that Castile had restored moved away to Murcia. Its bay mattered again once the crown looked across the sea: a fleet sailed from here for the war in Naples in 1503, and in 1509 Cardinal Cisneros fitted out his expedition against Oran in the harbour. The great change came under the Bourbons. After 1726 Philip V divided the Spanish coast into three naval departments, each with its own arsenal, and made Cartagena the head of the Mediterranean one. From 1732 the engineer Sebastián Feringán dug a great basin out of the shore and lined it with dry docks, workshops and barracks, works that took fifty years to finish. By the end of the 18th century the arsenal was the largest industrial complex on the whole Mediterranean coast of Spain, and its yards had launched 21 ships of the line and 17 frigates.