Gharry No. 34
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Gharry No. 34
This horse-drawn carriage or gharry, identified as No. 34, belonged to the Martinez family and was a permanent feature on Gibraltar’s roads. It was the last of the traditional carriages to operate on the Rock until the early 1990s together with its horse ‘Careto’.
The carriage was acquired by
The Gibraltar National Museum
in 2006 and has been on permanent display ever since. At the time of its acquisition, it was thought to be over 100 years old, having been in the Martinez family for over 90 years.The carriage trade was brought to Gibraltar by Maltese immigrants settling in Gibraltar and in many cases bringing their trade with them. Different from the usual two-wheeled carriages popular in Europe at the time, the Maltese style carriages could not only carry more people, but were also more stable and soon proved to be an invaluable form of transport in Gibraltar throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The same style of carriage is still used on the Maltese islands as a tourist attraction, where it is known as a ‘Karozzin’.
The carriage, or ‘Cochero’, trade was the family business of three generations of the Martinez family, a tradition which was not unique to them. Each gharry had its operating number, just like taxis do nowadays, and the Martinez family also owned numbers 90 and 59. Trade mainly consisted of tourist tours and weddings but they were also contracted to transport coal to the kitchens of the Bristol and, on occasion, the Rock Hotel.
Published: November 24, 2020
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18-20 Bomb House Lane
PO Box 939,
Gibraltar