Old Views of Gibraltar..

 

Date of Issue : 14 September 2012

Gibraltar Post has issued a beautiful set of 5 stamps featuring old views of Gibraltar.Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. It has an area of 6.8 square kilometers (2.6 sq mi) and a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region.

 

The name Gibraltar is the Spanish derivation of the Arabic name Jabal-ı Tārık meaning "mountain of Tariq."It refers to the geological formation, the Rock of Gibraltar.

One of the main features of Gibraltar’s population is the diversity of their ethnic origins. The demographics of Gibraltar reflects Gibraltarians' racial and cultural fusion of the many European and other economic migrants who came to the Rock over three hundred years, after almost all of the Spanish population left in 1704.

The culture of Gibraltar reflects Gibraltarians' diverse origins. While there are Spanish (mostly from nearby Andalusia) and British influences, the ethnic origins of most Gibraltarians are not confined to these ethnicities. Other ethnicities include Genoese, Maltese, Portuguese, and German. A few other Gibraltar residents are Jewish of Sephardic origin, Moroccan, or Indians. British influence remains strong, with English being the language of government, commerce, education, and the media.

 - From the book “Memories of Gibraltar’ by Gil Podesta

“While a see-saw history of occupations and sieges made Gibraltar a melting pot of peoples and cultures, its location at the gateway of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic added a unique savour to the mix. Centuries of clashes brought first Moors and Spaniards and eventually Britons to the fortress; decades of persecution added Sepphardic Jews to the melange and maritime trade added the individual spices of Genoa and Portugal to the multi-cultural dish.

At times the mix was tumultuous...the shot-scarred walls of the Moorish Castle, the Great Siege Tunnels, the fortress walls or the epitaphs on the gravestones in the Trafalgar Cemetery. Yet there was tranquility too. The tiled facades and courtyards of the old merchants’ houses of Irish Town, with the Spanish or Portuguese overtones...the jalousied shutters which point to the influence of Genoan traders...the ornate wrought-iron balconies which owe much to Britain’s industrial revolution.

For more than two centuries Britain’s colonial might dominated the shaping of Gibraltar - first as a fortress, then as a colony - continuing through the two world wars of the last century and well into their aftermath. But even then there were subtle forces at work which saw the gradual emergence of a civil population which was shaping its own identity.

All are part and parcel of the cultures and peoples which combined to shape the Gibraltarian.”

Maxium cards