[3] At the behest of General Melville, the Society of Antiquaries of London requested the Real Academia de la Historia to find the exact location of the legendary Battle of Munda, for which, in 1791, Belestá was commissioned to lead the first field trip ever carried out in Spain to that end.
Although he was unable to reach a conclusion as to its exact whereabouts, he was able to refute the traditional belief that the battle had been fought at Monda, in Málaga.
[3] In 1802 he was put in charge of the restoration works of Barcelona's royal palace, the Palau Reial Major, and later that year he was given the command of the fortifications along the borders of Old Castile in the province of Zamora.
[4] After proclaiming the independence of Portugal,[3] Belestá then marched the 6,000 troops of Taranco's Division, plus his prisoners, back north to Galicia to join the Spanish forces fighting the French.
However, on 27 October 1810, Belestá was sentenced to six months' duties without command before being re-instated to his previous rank of field marshal and transferred to Spain's Army of Catalonia.