page_title: Sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir
section_title: Forts San Miguel and Todos los Santos
hierarchical_section_title: Sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir / Siege / Forts San Miguel and Todos los Santos
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Carte de la baie d'Oran sur la côte de Barbarie d'après un cartographe hollandais de 1725. "De Bay Van Oran"
context_page_description: Between April and June 1563 the Regency of Algiers launched a major military campaign to retake the Spanish military-bases of Oran and Mers el Kébir on the North African coast, occupied by Spain since 1505. The sieges of Oran and Mers El Kébir of 1563 represented a major Hispano-Algerian episode in the larger Ottoman-Habsburg wars of the Mediterranean. The Kingdom of Algiers, the Principalities of Kabyle, and other vassal tribes combined forces as one army under Hasan Pasha, son of Hayreddin Barbarossa, and Jafar Catania. The Spanish commander brothers, Alonso de Córdoba Count of Alcaudete and Martín de Córdoba, managed to hold the strongholds of Oran and Mers El Kébir, respectively, until the relief fleet of Francisco de Mendoza arrived to successfully defeat the offensive.
context_section_description: The siege began on April 3, 1563, when Ottoman troops massively attacked the tower of Todos los Santos, defended by 200 Spanish soldiers. The fierce resistance of the fort's garrison, along with artillery support from Mers El Kébir, inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers. However, once the Ottoman cannons tore down the walls, the fort was soon taken. Meantime Jafar's galleys blocked Mers El Kébir to prevent the city to be relieved from Oran. Ottoman's main objective was to capture Mers El Kébir, as Hassan was warned by several renegades that the Spanish planned to abandon Oran to concentrate on the defense of the other town. Therefore, he destined most of his troops to take the fort of San Miguel, a key point of the Spanish defense, while only a few troops remained blocking Oran.
  San Miguel's fort was attacked over 22 days by 24,000 infantry and 400 cavalry soldiers. His few defenders rejected Hassan's offer of surrender and successfully repelled six assaults which left the moat full of dead Janissaries. Among the Ottoman casualties was the governor of Constantine, whose body could be recovered by his men with the permission of Martín de Córdoba. However, despite the stubbornness of the defense, the reinforcements sent from Mers el Kébir were not enough to continue fighting, and on May 8, under cover of darkness, the Spanish survivors retreated to the town.
caption: Map of the Bay of Oran in 1725, by Johannes van Keulen.
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