This fort was the largest the Spanish erected in the ‘new world’ and when it was finished in 1783 it almost surrounded San Juan and you could only get into the city through the fort’s gates. Unfortunately for visitors today great swathes of it were demolished at the end of the 19th Century and there’s only about a third of it left – but then that was because it was peaceful for so long. The tunnels running between and under the fort have survived pretty well though, along with a guard house, troop barracks and the main rallying plaza. The interesting thing about the fort is its layout which repels by confusion – inside its built over several layers each with a nice thick wall guarding it and more soldiers on the other side so you couldn’t just invade once you had to keep invading.

The U.S. used the fort in the Second World War and added less graceful pillar boxes and concrete bunkers which are a bit incongruous with the rest of the 18th Century military architecture, but most of it was built to protect the city from invasion from the land side after an almost successful attack by the British.

A fort this old is going to have some wonderful ghost stories, one of the best is about the Devil’s Guerite, one of the first sentry boxes built in about 1630 – apparently soldiers on watch here randomly vanished…

This is a cheap attraction, but its got a museum with some interesting artefacts and the grounds are definitely stroll worthy.

Written by  World Reviewer Staff.

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