Of all the walls Melilla possesses the sea has always been the highest. Where there was no water men had to put up waves made of stone. Then Melilla was surrounded by walls reminiscent of the sea, by moats that smelled of salt water, by towers that watched the sea horizons. Melilla did not become an island just because the sea did not want to bathe all its borders.
The city was born between natural barriers which, little by little, were turned into developed fortifications. The attacks coming from sea and land were the obsession of those who founded the city; that is why they always kept it between large stone walls. For Melilla’s inhabitants, in every stage of its history, the walls were the symbol of their strength, the armour with which they protected themselves from the threats that being a path between continents entailed.
The four fortified precincts are full of moats, towers, bastions, and under the fortresses there is a labyrinth of corridors which complete the defensive strategy of the city. Such infrastructure has changed according to the artistic influence of each period. Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassic motifs blend throughout the years in this strategic town conditioned by its outstanding geographical location.
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