Travel RESOURCES Gibraltar Tourist Board: www.visitgibraltar.gi Cable Car & the Rock information: www.gibraltarinfo.gi Barb & Ron Kroll publish the trip-planning website: www.KrollTravel.com The ReferendumGate was named after a 1967 referendum in which 99% of Gibraltarians voted to remain under British sovereignty. The 32,460 residents comprise the fifth-highest population density in the world – after Macau, Monaco, Singapore and Hong Kong. (Gibraltar is only 6.7 square kilometres in size.) This is an interesting time to be in Gibraltar. Brexit threatens to open old problems between Britain and Spain. After the Spaniards drove the Moors out of Gibraltar in 1492, they used the strategic territory as a naval base for more than two centuries. In 1713, Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht. Spain has been trying to get it back for more than three centuries since. The 1967 referendum in which all but 1% of Gibraltarians voted to remain part of England so provoked the Spanish dictator Franco, that he closed the border between Spain and Gibraltar. It remained closed for 16 years, from 1969 until 1985. Gibraltar has thrived economically under British rule and has enjoyed open trade with Spain since 1973 through the European Union. But now, Britain’s divorce negotiations with the EU threaten Gibraltar’s access to the free flow of goods, money and workers across the border. Spain wants joint sovereignty of Gibraltar to allow it to retain access to the EU market, something Britain is unlikely to grant. Time will tell what happens. We lost count of the number of surprises that we encountered in Gibraltar. But we know one thing for certain. With Brexit on the horizon, this British Overseas Territory will remain endlessly fascinating. A foreign thorn in Spain’s side Bus drives through the Referendum Gate, named after the 1967 referendum in which 99% of Gibraltarians voted to remain under British sovereignty Shops line the mostly pedestrianized Main Street CSANews | SUMMER 2017 | 21
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