Jan S. Krogh's
Geosite: The Gibraltar-Spain Border (ESGI) Under
construction
The frontier between Gibraltar and Spain is
a de facto border. The land border is 1200 metres long and one of the
shortest in the world.
(Click on the image to get up a high resolution picture.)
The author on the borderline
(August 2013).
At the entry to Gibraltar. Left foot on the Gibraltar side and right foot on the Spanish side.
At about 1910the British side built their fence at this point. (Earlier the line was further south.1)) Between 1969 and 1982 the
Spanish gates were completely closed, and Gibraltar got their food supplies
and workers from
Morocco. Gibraltar is, as the UK, not participating in the Schengen Area, and
therefore there are both passport control and customs.
Here on the departure from
Gibraltar. Spain on my left. Beforehand the construction of the 1910 fence the British informed their Spanish side and ensured that the fence would be built
1 metre inside the British part of the neutral territory. Later the Spanish side regretted that
according to them it was 1-2 metres on the Spanish side. After the
World War II the Spanish
ruler Francisco Franco wanted to gain full control over Gibraltar. The
Spanish interpretation of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) 2) does not give the
British side any jurisdiction over the Rock. The border must therefore,
despite the heavy fence, be considered to be undemarcated.
The situation at the
Gibraltarian border between 1969 and 1982. Absolutely nobody was allowed to
pass the frontier. In 1982 local pedestrians were permitted, and in 1985
a normal regime was reestablished. Photo:
Elmar Reich.
From the Gibraltar side. Notice
the border columns. (The Gibraltarian is the taller.)
Pictured from the Spanish side.
Notice the Gibraltarian border column with a cannonball on the top.
Overview from the main checkpoint
seen from the Gibraltar side.