LA CORTADURA PIPE
Artificial pipe made for military and defensive purposes.
Excavated as a transverse moat that joins the waters of the San Pedro river with those of the Trocadero channel, turning the Trocadero peninsula (also called Matagorda) into an island.
Throughout the years it has been known by different names: San José pipe, San Pedro River pipe, new pipe of Las Damas or, in recent decades, popularly known as the Minister’s pipe.
The director of the works was the military engineer José Autrán Díaz de Barcenilla from Puerto Rico. The works began in September 1812, after the withdrawal of the Napoleonic troops that had been besieging the city of Cádiz from their camp in La Algaida for more than two years, and were completed in July 1813.
With a little more than one kilometer in length, the initial plan was for it to be 80 meters wide and 5 meters deep.
For its construction, more than a thousand people were employed daily, both French prisoners and salaried workers from the surrounding towns and cities.
The Caño de la Cortadura, endowed with several fortifications, would be the scene of the famous Battle of the Trocadero, a military encounter that took place on the night of August 30-31, 1823, between the French army of the Hundred Thousand Sons of St. Louis, commanded by the Duke of Angoulême and the Spanish liberal troops, a battle that would mean the end of the Spanish Liberal Triennium (1820-1823) and the absolutist restoration of Ferdinand VII. In memory of this battle, one of the most famous places in the city of Paris (France) was named Trocadero Square.
