The projects of the military engineers Alejandro de Rez and Antonio Montaigú de la Perille for the Cartagena harbour. The first proposals to transform the shoreline (1717-1731)

Abstract

To perform the largest transformation ever of the Cartagena harbour, many projects were carried out during the XVIII Century and they reflect the existing geostrategic, economic and technical circumstances at the time of their implementation.
This article contains part of the contributions of a broader research work carried out on the genesis of the project and the material implementation carried out to adapt the then obsolete city harbour for the new needs of the Bourbon Monarchy in this century. Next we state the reasons confirming that the project of the engineer Montaigú de la Perille, decontextualised so far, is contemporary with Rez’s project drawn up to build a Naval Base in the city, which set up guidelines followed by Montaigú for the first Master Plan approved to transform the bay shoreline. And so two engineers of undoubted expertise claim the unkonwn and shared authorship for the proposal: Alejandro de Rez and Sebastián Feringán Cortés.