The Bridge Gateway

The Bridge Gateway, better known as the Clock Tower Entrance, was the only access to the historic downtown from outlying Getsemaní by means of a drawbridge spanning the old San Anastasio channel. Constructed at the same time as the first […]

The Bridge Gateway, better known as the Clock Tower Entrance, was the only access to the historic downtown from outlying Getsemaní by means of a drawbridge spanning the old San Anastasio channel. Constructed at the same time as the first closure of the city about 1631, the primitive portal did not have a long life since it was destroyed during the French siege of 1697.

In the first third of the XVIII century, the engineer Juan de Herrera y Sotomayor, repaired the damage, and projected an entrance in accordance with the category of the city and the artistic dictates of the era. He built three bomb-proof vaults, the central one being a Doric portal which permits entry to the city, with two side vaults used as refuge for the guard corps and warehouses for provisions and ammunition. He also added a section which terminated in a spire with a chamber to place the city’s clock and bell.

The Bridge Gateway held to Herrera’s plan until 1888, when the current clock tower, with two octagonal bodies and a new spire, designed by the Cartagena architect Luis Felipe Jaspe, was built.