Domingo Belestá y Pared (Alicante, 4 March 1741 – Cádiz, 7 December 1819) was a Spanish

military engineer Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics ...

who served in the

American Revolutionary Patriots, also known as Revolutionaries, Continentals, Rebels, or American Whigs, were the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies who rejected British rule during the American Revolution, and United States Declaration of Independence, declared the ...

French Revolutionary The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...

and

Peninsular A peninsula (; ) is a landform that extends from a mainland and is surrounded by water on most, but not all of its borders. A peninsula is also sometimes defined as a piece of land bordered by water on three of its sides. Peninsulas exist on all ...

wars. His surname also appears in the literature of the Peninsular War misspelt as Bellesta Foy, Maximilien (1829)
''History of the War in the Peninsula, Under Napoleon'', pp. 432-433. Treuttel and Würtz, Treuttel, jun. and Richter.
''Google Books''. Retrieved 26 January 2023. or Ballesta.Rama Patiño, Luz; José Manuel Vázquez Lijó
"Francisco Taranco y Llano". ''Diccionario Biográfico electrónico''.
Real Academia de la Historia. Retrieved 26 January 2023. After enlisting as a Cadet in 1761 in Spain's Regimiento de Infantería de Flandes, where he was promoted to second lieutenant, in 1765 Belestá went on to study Mathematics at Spain's military engineering school, the Real Academia Militar de Matemáticas y Fortificación, in Barcelona. Promoted to captain in 1778, he stayed on at the Academy, where he taught Drawing, until 1781.

American Revolutionary War

During the

Anglo-Spanish War (1779–1783) Spain, through its alliance with France and as part of its conflict with Britain, played a role in the independence of the United States. Spain declared war on Britain as an ally of France, itself an ally of the American colonies. Most notably ...

, part of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, Belestá participated at the siege of St. Philip's Castle, in Menorca, under the orders of the Duke of Crillon and from there went on to the Great Siege of Gibraltar. At the conclusion of the siege, Belestá was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1783 and was sent to supervise the construction of the roads from Málaga to Velez and to Antequera, as well as working on the San Telmo Aqueduct then being constructed in Málaga. Around that time he was also involved in the construction of the Explanada Boulevard in Barcelona, the ongoing works on one of the three branches of the Canal de Castilla, and works on the port at Melilla, among other projects.

Inter-war years

At the behest of General Melville, the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Soci ...

requested the Real Academia de la Historia to find the exact location of the legendary

Battle of Munda The Battle of Munda (17 March 45 BC), in southern Hispania Ulterior, was the final battle of Caesar's civil war against the leaders of the Optimates. With the military victory at Munda and the deaths of Titus Labienus and Gnaeus Pompeius (elde ...

, 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 Monda is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is located near Sierra Blanca and Sierra de las Nieves in the comarca of Sierra de las Nieves. The municipality is ...

, in Málaga. Promoted to colonel in 1794, he was appointed director of the Real Academia he had studied at in Barcelona. He held the post until its closure in 1802 and transferred to Madrid. During that time he was also promoted to Chief Engineer (1797) and later, in 1801, during the

War of the Oranges The War of the Oranges ( pt, Guerra das Laranjas; french: Guerre des Oranges; es, Guerra de las Naranjas) was a brief conflict in 1801 in which Spanish forces, instigated by the government of France, and ultimately supported by the French mil ...

, he was sent to participate in the siege at

Elvas Elvas () is a Portuguese municipality, former episcopal city and frontier fortress of easternmost central Portugal, located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo. It is situated about east of Lisbon, and about west of the Spanish fortres ...

. In 1802 he was put in charge of the restoration works of Barcelona's royal palace, the

Palau Reial Major The Palau Reial Major (; "Grand Royal Palace") is a complex of historic buildings located in Plaça del Rei, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was a residence of the counts of Barcelona and kings of Aragon. It is composed of three distinct edifices ...

, and later that year he was given the command of the fortifications along the borders of

Old Castile Old Castile ( es, Castilla la Vieja ) is a historic region of Spain, which had different definitions along the centuries. Its extension was formally defined in the 1833 territorial division of Spain as the sum of the following provinces: Sant ...

in the province of Zamora.

Peninsular War

In 1808, now a field marshal, Belestá was the chief of staff of the Spanish forces sent, together with General Junot's Army of Portugal, to occupy Portugal. Following the sudden death of General Taranco at the beginning of the year, Belestá took command of the latter's headquarters at

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, However, when, on 6 June 1808, the news of the uprising in Madrid and the subsequent revolt in La Coruña and elsewhere in Spain, reached Belestá, he arrested the French governor, General of Division

Quesnel Quesnel or Quesnell means "little oak" in the Picard dialect of French. It is used as a proper name and may refer to: Places * Le Quesnel, a commune the Somme department in France * Quesnel, British Columbia, a city in British Columbia, Canada ...

, together with his 75-man escort.Muñoz Maldonado, José (1833)
''Historia política y militar de la guerra de la independencia de España contra Napoleon Bonaparte desde 1808 á 1814'', Volume 1, p. 228.
''Google Books''. Retrieved 26 January 2023. After proclaiming the independence of Portugal, 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. Taken prisoner by

Marshal of the Empire Marshal of the Empire (french: Maréchal d'Empire) was a civil dignity during the First French Empire. It was created by '' Sénatus-consulte'' on 18 May 1804 and to a large extent reinstated the formerly abolished title of Marshal of France. Ac ...

Soult Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia, (; 29 March 1769 – 26 November 1851) was a French general and statesman, named Marshal of the Empire in 1804 and often called Marshal Soult. Soult was one of only six officers in Frenc ...

's French forces at La Coruña, in January 1809, Belestá managed to escape and reported for duty to the Marquis of La Romana, whose 9,000-strong division had disembarked at Santander towards the end of the previous year and had been incorporated into

Blakes Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP (Blakes) is an international corporate law firm with offices in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, New York City, and London. History Blakes was launched in 1856 after Edward Blake, Dominick Edward B ...

's Army of Galicia which, itself, would later be incorporated under La Romana's future Army of the Left, and had worked its way towards La Coruña as the rearguard of General Moore's retreat to La Coruña. 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. However, before he take up his post, he was appointed Director of Engineers in Andalucía, based in Granada. In May 1814 he supported that city's uprising in favour of

Fernando VII , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_pla ...

as an

absolute monarch Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute power, though a limited constituti ...

Death

Belestá died of

yellow fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

in 1819.Carrillo de Albornoz y Galbeño, Juan
"Domingo Belestá y Pared". ''Diccionario Biográfico electrónico''.
Real Academia de la Historia. Retrieved 25 January 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Belestá, Domingo Spanish commanders of the Napoleonic Wars 1741 births 1819 deaths People from Alicante