The la Carraca Arsenal was the first naval military establishment of its kind to be created in Spain, and is very much a symbol of the town. Its construction was complicated due to the nature of the land it was built on, and although it is officially recorded as having been completed in 1752 the works actually continued for most of the rest of the 18^th century.

The la Carraca naval base is still in full use today and can be accessed either by sea using one of its various docks or by land via a single route surrounded by old salt flats which links it  with the barracks of San Carlos on the Caño De Sancti Petri.

The base still retains several notable buildings, all of which are designed in the typical neoclassical style of the day. As it is a military zone, access is restricted and it can only be visited via prior arrangement or during open days.

In Season 3 the arsenal is transformed into the streets of Athens, besieged by cannons on all sides, where Prince Philip’s mother is forced to run the gauntlet to visit a pawn shop and sell a precious jewel in order to help the survival of the convent in which she lives.

In Episode 8 of Season 4 we see a car taking Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to the Queen’s Royal Yacht which is docked in the Port of Nassau in the Bahamas after the sovereign’s conference at the Commonwealth summit.