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Havana’s castles and fortresses
Roberto F. Campos
According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO),
travel promotes peace as opposed to war, through the
intrinsic development of understanding and tolerance
it implies. This concept is based on the fact that
travelers, as a rule, acquire knowledge of the
history and traditions of other peoples. In the case
of Cuba, in particular Havana, tourists are drawn to
the city’s castles and fortresses, built in another
era.
These are sites which at one time guaranteed
colonial domination, but have now become part of the
Cuban capital’s postcard imagery.
Havana’s castles, built to foil pirates and protect
the Spanish colony, have stood the test of time
practically intact, serving as a visible historical
memory, and can be easily visited. The most
distinctive of these is the Morro, which has greeted
those who arrived by sea for centuries, and now
welcomes tourists who consider it a must-see on even
the shortest visits to the city, founded November
16, 1519.
THE
MORRO
Always on guard, the Castillo de los Tres Santos
Reyes de El Morro, is perched on a rock cliff at the
entrance to Havana Bay. The fortress and working
lighthouse guide ships and are visited by tourists
who arrive from the city, either via a tunnel under
the channel or aboard a ferry.
The Morro is perched on a rock cliff
at the entrance to Havana Bay, greeting all those
who arrive by sea. Foto: AFP.
Long
before becoming a tourist attraction, the fortress
was conceived by the Spanish crown as part of its
plans to defend the city against pirates, during the
16th and 17th centuries. Construction of the
fortress continued for some 40 years, 1589-1630,
under the direction of military engineer Juan
Bautista Antonelli, who was additionally responsible
for many other works in Havana.
The
Morro, as it is known, is an irregular
polygon-shaped bastion, rising 40 meters above sea
level, with thick walls, bulwarks and defensive
extensions.
In
1762, it was captured by the English fleet, allowing
that country to take and hold Havana for some 11
months, through July 6, 1763.
Current day visitors are most fascinated by the
fortress’s 10-meter lighthouse, which has undergone
several changes over the years. The light was
originally fueled by wood, then adapted in 1819 to
oil, in 1928 to acetylene, and finally in 1945 to
electricity.
THE
FORT
The
Castillo de la Real Fuerza, protecting the entrance
to the bay on the opposite side of the channel,
where the central part of the city is located, is
Havana’s most ancient fort. This is the perfect stop
for a marvelous afternoon or sunset, to visit the
upstairs café or enjoy an exhibit inside.
Its
construction was also undertaken as a result of
increasing attacks by pirates and corsairs, which
obliged the king of Spain, Phillip II, to order
Havana’s governor at the time, Don Hernando de Soto,
to build the fortress.
Work
began in 1558 and ended 20 years later, in 1578.
Incidentally, the early stages of construction were
overseen by the capital’s only female governor, Doña
Isabel de Bobadilla, the wife of De Soto, who died
in 1542, on the banks of the Mississippi River,
during the conquest of Florida. She waited
faithfully for the return of her beloved and engaged
architect Mateo de Aceituno to design and supervise
the construction. The castle was absolutely secure
and several governors chose it as their residence
Bobadilla became a legendary figure and a small
bronze statue was created in her honor, placed as a
weathervane on the cupola of the fortress, looking
out toward the sea, metaphorically awaiting her
husband’s return. The statue, LaGiraldilla, remains
a symbol of the city.
LA
PUNTA
The
Punta fortress was erected on a small point,
directly on the sea. Under construction for 10
years, the simple fort - a 100 by 58 meter
quadrilateral - was finished in 1600, well before
the Morro. Historians recall that the fort was
severely damaged during the English occupation of
Havana. It was repaired, and in 1868, during the 10
Years War of independence, four esplanades with
cannons were added.
SAN
CARLOS DE LA CABAÑA
In
addition to housing the Arms Museum and the building
where Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara’s headquarters
was located during the early days of the Revolution,
the San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress is the city’s
largest, located in the city’s Morro-Cabaña
Historical-Military Park.
The San Carlos de la Cabaña Fortress
was the largest military installation
built by the Spanish in its American colonies,
housing at one time
245 pieces of artillery.
This
fortress, occupying a privileged position on a hill
overlooking the city, was also constructed under the
direction of Juan María Antonelli and was
considered, at the time, as key to the defense of
Havana. While supervising work on the Morro,
Antonelli himself is said to have looked over toward
the prominent hill and commented that whoever
controlled it would control Havana, just as the
English later did.
Construction on the Cabaña Fortress began in 1763,
immediately after the withdrawal of the English, on
orders from Carlos III and ended a year later. The
plans were drawn up by a Frenchman named De Valliére
and his compatriot Ricaud de Tirgole was responsible
for the design. The Fortress includes a 700 meter
long plaza, within a polygon surrounded by walls
measuring a total of 450 meters, with bastions,
terraces, firing slits and an outer curtain wall. In
1859, 1,300 soldiers were garrisoned there, equipped
with 120 cannons and bronze shells. Within its inner
courtyards, Cuban patriots faced firing squads,
including the poet Juan Clemente Zenea, while the
fortress also served as the Rebel Army’s command
post after 1959, then as the site of traitors’
trials, and finally as a tourist destination.
Every night precisely at 9:00 pm, a colonial cannon
is fired by cadets dressed in uniforms from that
era, allowing everyone in Havana to check their
clocks. The tradition began when the cannon shot
served as an order to close the city’s gates, to
protect those safely inside from raiders and
pirates.
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