Museum Christmas Lecture on the Castle of Gibraltar - 838/2024

Gibraltar's castle has had a rich and tumultuous history since its origins in the Medieval Period. It has seen siege and counter-siege, attacks with catapults and other siege engines, and prevailed even with the advent of gunpowder and heavy artillery. Later, it was converted into a Military Prison and eventually Gibraltar's Civil Prison.

This year's Gibraltar National Museum Christmas Lecture, which will also be a Beacon Professor Lecture, will be delivered by Professor Clive Finlayson at the University of Gibraltar on Thursday 19^th December at 6pm. The title of the lecture is "The Castle of Gibraltar". The lecture will cover the castle's rich history and will assess its current state. How much has survived the many attacks which it has had to endure? Professor Finlayson will analyse our current knowledge of the history of the castle, using a combination of historical sources, original Islamic texts and three decades of archaeological investigation led by him and his team at the museum. He will also explain the conservation work which is currently being carried out to this iconic monument.

The lecture will be introduced by another Beacon Professor, the Minister for Heritage, the Hon Prof John Cortes, who has a keen interest in Gibraltar's heritage and has been instrumental in the development of the new project which aims to open up areas of the castle which have been hitherto closed to the public. Commenting ahead of the lecture, Professor Cortes said: "I am delighted to be opening this lecture, which will set the scene to what is a marvellous project that is going to show our community and the world just how important this castle is in the context of our rich and diverse history."

Entrance is free and tickets may be reserved at:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-castle-of-gibraltar-by-prof-clive-finlayson-tickets-1107164762609?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0IWeGpCAXMsV0tukxscW-cZof55BJtApS5jlbsSVnVgp9oFEDmO2fDLIY_aem_Vjb2XzOvr7RXI6x2J7pMYA