Richard Ford’s visit to Gibraltar, 1845

We continue with Ford’s book as he gives us his impressions on religion in Gibraltar:

The Jewish synagogue is noisy and curious. There is a ci-devant convent chapel in the governor’s house for Protestants, and a newly erected church or cathedral in the Moorish style, and not before it was wanted: this was finished in 1832. Gibraltar has now a Protestant bishop, and thus at last has been wiped out the scandalous neglect of all our governments at home for the spiritual wants and religious concerns of its colonists: while the activity, intelligence, and industry of England have rendered every nook of the Rock available for defence, no house until lately was raised to God. The colonisation of the English Hercules has never been marked by a simultaneous erection of temples and warehouses; a century elapsed, in which more money was expended in masonry and gunpowder that would have built St. Peter’s, before a Protestant church was erected.

Image: 19th century photograph of the town showing the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and St Andrew's Church.