A Franco-Spanish army reached the Rock in early September 1704 and began a siege in October. Governor Henry Nugent was mortally wounded on 9 November 1704 at San Pablo Battery (North Bastion). The English received reinforcements, and in March 1705 the siege was lifted. The bastion was an important position during the Siege of Gibraltar of 1727. During this siege the attack was directed only against the Rock's north front and defenses. These defenses consisted of the Land Port curtain wall defended by Willis' Battery, the Castle Battery, North Bastion and guns on the old mole. Most of the British artillery was old and in poor condition: more deaths were caused to the British by their own guns bursting than by fire from the Spanish. By the end of February the Spanish had brought forward siege works, but were exposed to fire from the British defenses and also from above, since small mines exploded at the top of the Rock sent showers of stone into the Spanish trenches. By mid-March the North Bastion was suffering from heavy fire from a 12-gun position close to the Rock. At the end of April the bastion was still subject to heavy fire from the Spanish batteries, with three guns dismounted on the 30th. In the end, it proved impossible for the Spanish to break through the fortifications. On 23 June 1727 a truce was agreed, and a peace treaty was signed in 1729 after long negotiations. At the start of the Great Siege of Gibraltar (June 1779 – 7 February 1783), engineers built a "cavalier" (elevated firing platform) for five guns within the north bastion, by then considered a part of the Grand Battery. Before 1999, the site of the Giralda Tower was partly an unkept garden, and is now used by the Gibraltar Petanque Association. The association has about 80 members. Its premises at the Giralda Gardens on the city wall have four floodlit pistes. The Government of Gibraltar had plans to improve access to the Northern Defences as part of an effort to better exploit the tourist potential of the historical defence work. The plan included making the gardens more attractive and accessible and providing historical interpretation of the site. The Giralda Tower site, across the road from the Grand Battery, would link tours of the northern and western defences. Citations  Sources