In A Rocky Labyrinth<\/em><\/a>, the exhaustive street guide published by Manolo Galliano in 2022, we discover that the name \u2018Carrera\u2019s Passage\u2019 first appeared in the register of inhabitants of 1871. Three years earlier, in the 1868 census<\/a>, we find precisely a handful of bearers of this surname around the area of el Patio Carreras: at No 3 Turnbull\u2019s Lane, for example, there lived Crist\u00f3bal Carreras Bandrell, 61, from Mahon, with his second wife, Maria Butler, born in the far-off lands of Newfoundland;\u00a0and at least five of his children lived at number 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, according to the information<\/a> provided by the ministry itself about the passage, the name is likely much older and probably comes, in fact, from a tobacconist, Francis Carreras, who, according to the 1816 register of inhabitants, had arrived in Gibraltar at the end of the 18 th Century and resided at 12 Engineer Lane along with his wife Mary and their two children.\u00a0His tobacco workshop seems to have been on the southern corner of the current Carrera\u2019s Passage with Engineer Lane, and the family residence occupied the second floor.\u00a0On the first floor, as was common in this widespread subsistence activity at the beginning of the 19 th Century in Gibraltar, there was a warehouse where tobacco bales were stored. The sacks were hoisted with a wall crane like the one that can still, in fact, be seen at the entrance to Carrera\u2019s Passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Earliest Carreras<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although the origin of the alley\u2019s name can be traced to the beginning of the 19 th Century, it should be noted that the Carreras lineage had been in Gibraltar since the preceding century, practically coinciding with the Habsburg occupation of the fortress during the War of Succession.\u00a0In a marriage document preserved in the archives of Saint Mary the Crowned dated 13 October 1711, a certain Antonio Carreras, a native of Petra (Mallorca), married Gr\u00e0cia Corrons, a Catalan, daughter of Josep Corrons<\/a>, \u2018sargento maior desta plasa.\u2019\u00a0The two witnesses to the marriage were Alonso de la Capela, \u2018alcalde maior de esta plasa,\u2019 and Fray Miguel Vall\u00e9s.\u00a0Bearing in mind that in 1711 Gibraltar was still officially a Habsburg possession and only unofficially British, the figures in this document demonstrate, on the one hand, the important position that Antoni Carreras In fact, the Catalan Josep Corrons, the bride\u2019s father, was involved in the occupation of the Rock alongside Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, Commander-in-Chief of the Anglo-Dutch expedition of August 1704.\u00a0After the first Franco-Spanish siege of 1705, Prince George and the three hundred Catalan volunteers who had accompanied<\/a> him left Gibraltar to ignite the Habsburg spark in both Valencia and Catalonia.\u00a0However, he left as representatives of the Archduke\u2019s interests some of his most trusted men in key positions in the city\u2019s new civil (or political) administration, as local historian Richard Garcia confirmed<\/a> in an interview: \u2018The Catalans played an important role during the years immediately after the capture in From 1711, therefore, the times the name of the notable Mallorcan appeared in local documents and records do no more than confirm the prominence he acquired among the growing civilian population throughout the 18 th Century.\u00a0In 1733, at the marriage of his daughter Francisca to Joan Canals, a Mallorcan like himself, the name of Pedro de Salas, who held the important position of Spanish sergeant, stands out as one of the witnesses to it.\u00a0Moreover, in 1746, Maria Gracia Carreras, another daughter of his, married Pedro Juan de Salas, son of the aforementioned Pedro de Salas.\u00a0Three years earlier, Beatriz Carreras had become engaged at only fourteen years old to the Genoese Nicolas Quartin, who was destined to be a prominent member of the local Catholic community.\u00a0Then on 21 May 1756, at the wedding of Maria Blanca Carreras to another Genoese, one of the witnesses was none other than Bartolom\u00e9 Danino, consul of Genoa in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n On just reading through the parish records and books, it is an enormous surprise to see the large number of contacts that Antoni Carreras established in the fortress.\u00a0Following up the names that appear in his family\u2019s baptisms and weddings, we discover that, in addition to interacting with influential people in the city, this skilled businessman from Mallorca had a direct relationship with the vast majority of Catalans and Valencians present during the 18 th Century in Gibraltar.\u00a0Thus, tracking his entries from document to document between 1722 and 1761, he is seen to be linked with the Valencians Dami\u00e0 Capsir<\/a> and Francesc Vall\u00e9s (undoubtedly related to Fray Miquel Vall\u00e9s), the Catalan couple Josep Gatell and Joana Canals, Thomas Porro (from Alicante of Genoese origin, father of the future bishop Francisco Porro<\/a>), Miquel Riera<\/a>, who was also Catalan, and his wife Tecla Porta from Mahon, the Valencian Francesc Mayor and his Menorcan wife, Margarida Tr\u00e9mol, the Catalans Llu\u00eds del Valle [sic], Josep Portas and Jaume Joan Llu\u00eds Socias, the Menorcan Esteve Vacarisas and also with Gabriel Coll, son of a Catalan and\u00a0a Menorcan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The blood ties and the close contact he had with the most prominent personalities of Gibraltar\u2019s microsociety in the first decades of British rule undoubtedly helped consolidate Carreras as a prominent businessman in a fortress where there were often shortages in supplies.\u00a0The link by marriage with Corrons, the \u2018alcaide\u2019 or captain of the port of Gibraltar from 1705 to 1719 whose family origins were in Matar\u00f3, is a reminder that he was involved in the commercial activity of the city precisely at a time when some great Habsburg families from the Matar\u00f3 area near Barcelona had launched the\u00a0Companyia Nova de Gibaltar<\/a>\u00a0with the intention of breaking C\u00e1diz\u2019s monopoly and being able to trade with ports on both sides of the There are more clues to be found about the businesses Carreras was involved in.\u00a0In 1732, after the second great Franco-Spanish siege of Gibraltar, we know<\/a> from historian Ricard Cantano that he was co-owner (with Thomas Porro) of a Catalan pink\u00a0captained by a sailor from Canet, Gabriel Cat\u00e0.\u00a0Cantano himself, in fact, connects Antoni with the Carreras family of sailors and businessmen from that coastal town near Matar\u00f3, a hypothesis that could be partially confirmed by the wedding of one of his sons, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Carreras, to Francisca Cat\u00e0<\/a>, sister of the aforementioned ship captain from Canet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Richard Garcia writing about Carreras\u2019s commercial activity also mentions in his book\u00a0Forging A Civilian Community (1704-1749)<\/em>\u00a0that in November 1735, together with the Valencian Francesc Mayor, he bought a French ship that had sunk just in front of the South Mole. According to Garcia, \u2018[t]he ship could not be salvaged and the vessel was valued at $550 including the yards, rigging, masts and timbers.\u2019\u00a0The Governor of Gibraltar, General Sabine, ordered it to be sold at auction in what today is John Mackintosh Square (the Piazza), but which during that time was popularly known as \u2018El Martillo\u2019 in reference to the auctioneers\u2019 gavel (\u2018martillo\u2019).\u00a0A further clue that he enjoyed a comfortable economic position is that when Joan Canals, who was also Mallorcan, married to one of his daughters and owner of a merchant ship, died suddenly in 1736, he left a debt with his father-in-law of $153.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alongside the growth of his businesses, Antoni Carreras also accumulated From Mallorca to Menorca \u2026 and Catalonia?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Antoni Carreras and Gr\u00e0cia Corrons had at least seventeen children between 1712 and 1739, when both died<\/a> within weeks of each other in the winter of 1767-1768, the surname gradually disappeared from Gibraltar.\u00a0A key reason is that they had more daughters than sons and, therefore, once married, they lost the family name.\u00a0At least three of their descendants are registered in the 1777 census: Gabriel, a 53-year-old sailor;\u00a0Antonio, 43, and Magdalena, 39.\u00a0In each case, the official taking Following the failure of the third Franco-Spanish siege of Gibraltar, many of the evacuees returned from various ports in England but more especially from the Mediterranean.\u00a0There is evidence of at least two of his children present in the fortress after the Great Siege: Magdalena, who died<\/a> in 1786, and Gabriel, the only bearer of the surname in the 1791 census.\u00a0However, thanks to a death certificate from 1811, we know that another son of Antonio, Francis, married in 1761 to the Irish Luisa Wyth, also died<\/a> in Gibraltar at 76 years of age from gangrene.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the Century turned, so the Carreras surname could also be said to have gone through a change: the predominantly Mallorcan line from the early 18 th Century gave way to the branch from Menorca, represented primarily by two marriages.\u00a0First, the marriage of Simon Carreras and Magdalena Cardona and, secondly, the marriage of Sebasti\u00e0 Carreras Segu\u00ed, \u2018patron of a ferry boat,\u2019 and \u00c0gueda Bonet Soler.\u00a0The Segu\u00ed couple, residing at least since 1793 in Gibraltar and married at the altar of Saint Mary the Crowned on 13 February 1798<\/a>, went on to have a good number of children, including Francisco (1800), Mar\u00eda<\/a> (1802), Teresa (1804), Pedro (1808), and Anna (1812).<\/p>\n\n\n\n One might well ask: so, from which branch did the tobacconist who is considered to have given his name to the Patio Carreras come?\u00a0Well, surprisingly, it seems it was neither from the Mallorcan nor the Menorcan families.\u00a0In the aforementioned 1816 census it is worth noting that in the column concerning the nationality of Francis Carreras and his wife Mary, the recording official wrote \u2018Spain\u2019 rather than \u2018Menorca\u2019 or even \u2018Majorca,\u2019 as was usually the case with the numerous Menorcans and the few Mallorcans mentioned in that register.\u00a0This detail becomes more relevant when in contemporary church archives, wherever Francisco Carreras and Maria Dolores G\u00f3mez appear, there is invariably mention of the fact that one is \u2018native of the town of Reus<\/a>\u2019 and that the other is from Ronda.\u00a0This is the case for the baptism of some of their children (such as Juan in 1812, Domingo in 1814, and Mar\u00eda de la Concepci\u00f3n<\/a> in 1815) as well as with regard to his own death on 18 February 1830<\/a>, at just fifty years of age, from \u2018henfermedad [sic] del pecho\u2019 (chest illness or infection).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, it should be noted that another Francisco Carreras,\u00a0merchant and broker, resided around 1834 in Road to the Lines and \u2018[it] is possible that the latter might also have been a property owner of one of the buildings in this small alleyway,\u2019 as Manolo Galliano speculates in his guide.\u00a0Who knows? That could be a son of his or perhaps the aforementioned Simon Carreras \u2013 who was from Mahon like him.\u00a0In any case, it would be the definitive confirmation that several generations and branches of the Carreras family contributed, to a greater or lesser extent, to forging history of this passage in the heart of the city full of Menorcan, Mallorcan and Catalan experiences Translated by Brian Porro<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As part of the significant effort of the Ministry for Heritage of Gibraltar to recover historical and cultural memory, it has for some time now been installing information plaques concerning the Rock\u2019s famous historical episodes and figures, as well as signs with the names of some city streets as they are (or were) known by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[48],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2298,"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2297\/revisions\/2298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PATIO-CARRERAS1.jpg\")
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must have occupied in the incipient Gibraltarian society which took root after thecexodus of the old Andalusian population and, on the other, his undeniable support for the cause of the House of Austria in the War of the Spanish Succession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
what was an attempt to fill the void left by the exodus. The mayor, the councillors, all of them left \u2026 They had to start over.\u2019 Corrons, in this sense, was the first captain of the port of Gibraltar, from 1705 until well after the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, when the territory officially passed to Great Britain.\u00a0Another Catalan, Alonso de la Capela, was appointed by the Archduke to serve as judge.\u00a0In addition to these two heavyweights of the administration established by Prince George before his departure, the presence in the marriage document as a witness of Fray Miquel Vall\u00e9s, a Franciscan who had probably left Valencia as a result of the Borb\u00f3n occupation of the Kingdom of Valencia in 1707, further makes clear Carreras\u2019s Habsburg positioning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Atlantic through Gibraltar.\u00a0The company, which was active between 1707 and 1714, even had a permanent agent in the fortress: c\/o Josep Valls<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
properties in Gibraltar, a city under military siege from the outside and demographic pressure from the inside, given the limited living space available for a constantly increasing population.\u00a0In a \u2018list of inhabitants<\/a>\u2019 of 1736, his name appears linked to four houses.\u00a0Moreover, in the famous property report<\/a> prepared by General Humphrey Bland in 1749, Carreras defended the possession of several houses supposedly granted by Prince George himself in 1705 to his wife\u2019s father, Josep Corrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Captura-de-pantalla-2023-03-01-a-les-9.41.22-1024x635.png\")
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the census noted that they were part of the group of civilians evacuated in June 1779 due to the imminent Great Siege<\/a> (1779-1783). Among the territories that welcomed a large prop ortion of the population was Menorca, then also under British rule.\u00a0It is altogether plausible to imagine, then, that some of the Carreras took refuge there without ever thinking that the Borb\u00f3n forces, faced with the difficulty of recovering Gibraltar, would soon afterwards choose to besiege the island from the summer of 1781 until its fall on 5 February 1782.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(and memories).<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/gibaltar.cat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/PATIO-CARRERAS.png\")
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