Located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, it is the main Spanish base in the Mediterranean Sea.

The port of Cartagena, first founded by the Carthaginians in the 2nd century BC, occupies a strategic location on the Mediterranean Sea.

It remained a commercial port until the reign of Philip V, when it was redeveloped as a major naval base alongside the expansion of the Spanish Navy.

In the second half of the 18th century, 21 ships, 17 frigates and more than fifty brigs, xebecs, hulks, galleys, etc.

The Arsenal employed several thousand people in the construction and the maintenance of the units of the Spanish Navy.