Fort, Museum sights in Caribbean Islands
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Fuerte Matachín
Baracoa is protected by a trio of muscular Spanish forts. This one built in 1802 at the southern entrance to town, now houses the Museo Municipal. Though small, this museum showcases an engaging chronology of Cuba's oldest settlement including polymita snail shells, the story of Che Guevara and the chocolate factory, and exhibits relating to pouty Magdalena Menasse (née Rovieskuya, 'La Rusa') after whom Alejo Carpentier based his famous book, La Consagración de la Primavera (The Rite of Spring).
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Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca del Morro
A Unesco World Heritage Site since 1997, the San Pedro fort sits like an impregnable citadel atop a 60m-high promontory at the entrance to Santiago harbor, 10km southwest of the city. The fort was designed in 1587 by famous Italian military engineer Giovanni Bautista Antonelli (who also designed La Punta and El Morro forts in Havana) to protect Santiago from pillaging pirates who had successfully sacked the city in 1554. Due to financial constraints, the building work didn't start until 1633 (17 years after Antonelli's death) and it carried on sporadically for the next 60 years. In the interim British privateer, Henry Morgan sacked and partially destroyed it.
Finally…
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A
Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta
One in a quartet of forts defending Havana harbor, La Punta was designed by the Italian military engineer Giovanni Bautista Antonelli and built between 1589 and 1600. During the colonial era a chain was stretched 250m to the castle of El Morro every night to close the harbor mouth to shipping. The castle's museum displays artifacts from sunken Spanish treasure fleets, a collection of model ships and information on the slave trade.
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B
Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magnos del Morro
This imposing fort was erected between 1589 and 1630 to protect the entrance to Havana harbor from pirates and foreign invaders (French corsair Jacques de Sores had sacked the city in 1555). Perched high on a rocky bluff above the Atlantic, the fort's irregular polygonal shape, 3m-thick walls and deep protective moat offer a classic example of Renaissance military architecture. For more than a century the fort withstood numerous attacks by French, Dutch and English privateers, but in 1762, after a 44-day siege, a 14,000-strong British force captured El Morro by attacking from the landward side. The Castillo's famous lighthouse was added in 1844.
Aside from the fantastic…
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C
Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña
This 18th-century colossus was built between 1763 and 1774 on a long, exposed ridge on the east side of Havana harbor to fill a weakness in the city's defenses. In 1762 the British had taken Havana by gaining control of this strategically important ridge, and it was from here that they shelled the city mercilessly into submission. In order to prevent a repeat performance, the Spanish King Carlos III ordered the construction of a massive fort that would repel future invaders. Measuring 700m from end to end and covering a whopping 10 hectares, it is the largest Spanish colonial fortress in the Americas.
The impregnability of the fort meant that no invader ever attacked it,…
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