The fortification process of Cartagena de Indias
Cartagena de Indias is a key city of the Spain military Empire
and has always been the target of rivals such as France and
England. By consequence, the fortification of the place was
necessary to assure victory in case of an attack.
The fortification process of the city and surroundings began in
the XVI century and has continued until the end of the XVIII
century. The Boqueron Fort was the first fortress of Cartagena
de Indias and was born with the need to protect the entrance of
the Animas bay. This fort is in our days the
San Sebastian del
Pastelillo on Manga Island.
There were two batteries close from the ramparts of Santa
Catalina and San Lucas, which today is named El Cabrero, which
used to protect ground access from the north side. Two other
batteries were in Punta Icacos, which today is the emplacement
of the Caribe hotel, which protected entrance from the south.
Finally, two other batteries where is now found the Santo
Domingo rampart, to protect from entrance from the sea and the
Bocagrande peninsula.
These defences weren’t enough to protect the city that was
attacked by Martin Cote and Francis Drake. However, this obliged
the Spanish Crown to improve the city’s defence by using the
Italian engineer Bautista Antonelli, which brought the best
fortification of America.
In the XVII century, the bay entrance of Tierrabomba was
protected by the San Luis castle of Bocachica on the south side
and San Matias, which replaced Punta Icacos (today hotel Caribe).
The Santangelo platform, situated north of Tierrabomba has
disappeared because of its inefficiency.
The fort of Santa Cruz de Castillogrande was situated where is
now the Naval club and was right beside the Fort of Manzanillo,
which still has the same name.
The Reducto rampart was situated at the point of the Getsemani
island right beside the Fort of Boqueron (pastelillo), where we
could communicate with the city.
On the hill of San Lazaro, the fort had the same name and a
couple years later, became the
San Felipe Castle
with a bigger fortification.
It was during the XVIII century, that the military construction
increased its importance to protect Cartagena de Indias. So,
military engineer Juan de Herrera y Sotomayor started the
reparation of the destroyed buildings through the Vernon
invasion.
- Re-establish the castles San Luis de Bocachica and the San
Felipe de Barajas.
- Restore the batteries of Chamba, Santiago and San Felipe.
- Restore two batteries on Baru Island : Varadero and Punta
Abanico.
- Rebuild the forts Manzanillo and Castillogrande.
Another engineer, Juan Bautista Mac Evan, put the accent on the
project of the
Fort San Fernando de Bocachica (by Lorenzo de Solis and
Antonio de Arevalo), which replaced San Luis, who was useless.
Also so conceive the Fort San Sebastian del Pastelillo. In the
second half of the XVIII century, Antonio de Arevalo took in
charge the auction sale of the fortification of the place make
him untouchable in his integrality.
- Reinforce the Castle San Felipe on the side to make it
stronger.
- Build a dam from the Santa Catalina rampart to the Santo
Domingo rampart and therefore protect the wall from waves.
- Finish the Castle San Fernando de Bocachica and the batteries
San Rafael Angel, Regis San Francisco and Santiago.
- Build the Santa Catalina dam (less known today as La Tenaza),
which was used to push back ground incursions by Marbella.
- Build La Tenaza, situated in front of the ramparts Santa
Catalina and San lucas, as well as the batteries Crespo and
Hornabeque de Palo Alto, which today doesn’t exist anymore.
- Realize the Bocagrande dam, which is an impressive work under
the sea to prevent boat passages by Bocagrnade, between Punta
Icacos (Caribe hotel) and Tierrabomba.
- The last creation of Arevelo was the construction of
Las Bovedas situated
between the ramparts of Santa Catalina and Santa Clara in order
to finish the works and systematic closure of the fortified
city. It was also the last military building built by Spain in
Cartagena de Indias.
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