March 6, 2014 WALKS IN HISTORY: El Paseo de Galeones
R
ota is a small town in a continuous embrace with the Sea. The Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Bay of Cádiz on the other give Rota its characteristic geography and climate, with two very different coasts and beaches which are enjoyed yearround by all kinds of sports-lovers, fishermen and relaxing tourists. Today we will be visiting the eastern coast, that on the Bay of Cádiz. Historically, it was on this side of town where the harbour has always been, as its deep waters allowed large vessels to approach land, the higher ground offered shelter from strong winds and the predictable sand banks helped ships anchor safely a short row away from the coast.This coast stretched from Rota in the west all the way to the Castillo de Santa Catalina, where today stands the Puerto Sherry marina, and was well known to British sailors whom called it "the Bay of Bulls". British naval and pirate ships alike sheltered occasionally here during their raids on the Spanish coast, which eventually led to a number of batteries being built here to stop that habit. Only the Castillo de Santa Catalina remains, the rest having been erased by Time and Man. It is this history of the "Bay of Bulls" being used as a shelter that gave it its old Spanish name: playa de Galeones, the beach of the galleons.The name today has been retained to refer to the promenade starting in Rota harbour and reaching the fence of the Base. Let's take a walk next to the sea, shall we? We'll start next to the harbour entrance, although many will rather know this place as the pub "Honey, don't cry". Here we find the centre of Rota's nightlife, especially the summer one. Most of the clubs we can find here were dug into the city wall after the modern port was built in the 1990's, that is why roteños refer to this place simply as "la muralla", the wall. As we walk along the small park at the foot of the wall we come across some old bronze cannons, some are replicas, but others are real ones used in the past to defend Rota from naval assault. Eventually the promenade by the beach turns into stairs so that we can climb up to the Plaza de Pio XII, or the Sagrado Corazón, as it is also known because of the image of Christ on a large pillar. This large square was little by little reclaimed back from the sea in the 1950's after the coast was eroded away by storms. During most of the 20th century people got the bad habit of dumping their rubbish into the sea.At first it was to reclaim the lost ground... but it soon it got out of hand and turned the coast into a rubbish dump.This was changed in the 1990's, thankfully a more ecological approach was taken when dealing with garbage, and the beach was cleared of all traces of its dirty past. Eventually, and the building of Rota´s modern harbour, as well as that of the Base, changed the currents in the "Bay of Bulls", meaning that the deep waters came shallow sandbanks with a huge and well protected beach: "la playa del Rompidillo", non-existent as little as forty years ago.
Text by José Antonio Pilares / Photos by Antonio Cordero
The dissapeared arch stood where the lighthouse can be seen
Picobarro at lowtide, beyond is the Base
But lets go on uphill! The higher we go, the thinner the beach gets, and the coast feels wilder. Cliffs begin taking the place of the sand until we get to a very particular spot, el Picobarro. "Picobarro" literally means "Clay point" and it is exactly that, a red and white clay cliff that punches out into the sea.At the low tide one can easily walk around it, having of course great care not to slip of the wet clay that surrounds it. But at the high tide on a stormy day... the sea envelops it, turning it into the bow of an imaginary galley as it is battered by the waves. Erosion created into this cliff over the centuries a curious looking arch on its eastern side. One got a strangely reassuring feeling while swimming under it in summer at high time, being sheltered by the arch from the currents, the wind and the sun. Nature had modelled by itself a master piece of architecture, as the arch itself was as perfect and as pleasing to the eye as one that could be found in a medieval church. However, the sea giveth and the sea taketh, four years ago a powerful storm hit Rota and the clay in the arch became weaker with each drop of water. As the sun for days did not shine on the clay, allowing it to dry, the arch began dissolving and eventually collapsed in on itself. Today one can still bathe near the Picobarro, but the erosion problem has been seriously taken into consideration. People can no longer climb onto the cliff, for their own safety, but also for that of the natural monument. From a geological perspective, el Picobarro is dammed to disappear by erosion, but we Humans can at least help in slowing down the process instead of speeding it up. Not like happened with the rock "la Cuba de Rota". "La Cuba" -"the barrel"was a now long-lost rock that existed somewhere on these cliffs. It had the particularity of housing a long cave that could be flooded by the sea waves during storms.When storms did hit Rota a powerful explosion could be heard for miles around town, supposedly caused by "La Cuba". Some have theorised that the air inside the cave would become so compressed by the flooding waters that after a critical mass was reached the air boomed out of the cave, pushing out the water like an air-gun and creating the explosion-like sound.Today no living records of its whereabouts seem to remain, and few people still know of "la Cuba's" existence. Most probably the rock was quarried away; but a silent reminder of it does exist, the coat of arms. Most towns have their own coats of arms to identify them, just like company logos. Rota's is a turret riding five waves of blue and silver, surrounded by a rosary and topped with a ducal crown. However, an older coat of arms can be seen in some places, most notably on the ceiling of the hall of the Castillo de Luna, where the City Council meets. There the coat of arms is escorted by a Latin engraving: ET VOX TRONVIT IN ROTTA, meaning "And the voice thundered in Rota".The "voice" of La Cuba, the voice of the Sea.
El Picabarro in a winter storm
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