San Juan

Guardian of the Spanish Main The 400-year-old castles and battlements that encircle Old San Juan are protected today as part of San Juan National Historic Site. Begun by Spanish troops in the 16th century, these massive masonry defenses are the oldest European-style fortifications w ithin the territory of the United States. The silent bastions and batteries are constant reminders of Spain 's historic power in the New World. In the 50 years after Columbus discovered the island of Puerto Rico in 1493, Spain built a vast and lucrative New World empire that helped it become the leading European power of t he day. The conquests of Mexico and Peru provided the Spanish treasury with dependable sources of great wealth in precious gems, gold, and silver. To assure safe delivery of these riches, Spain sent two armed ship convoys to the New World each year, building up San Juan's harbor defenses. Drake put San Juan through Sir Francis Drake (left) provoked Spain's King Philip II (right) into entering the eastern Caribbean Sea near Puerto Rico. One convoy took on Mexican gold and silver and Philippine merchandise at Vera Cruz; the other picked up pearls at Cartagena and Peru vian treasure at Portobelo on the Isthmus of Panama. The two fleets met at Havana for the voyage back to Spain past the shores of Florida. To these treasure ships, the Caribbean Sea was a vital passageway. It was also a dangerous maze of islands with few harbors of refuge. Spain claimed t he Caribbean as its exclusive territory by right of c onquest and papal dispensation, but its author ity was c onstantly bein g c hallenged by pirates and by t raditional European enemies-England, France, and Holland, whose roving corsairs regularly attacked Spanish shipping and towns. To safeguard New World possessions and maintain its trade monopoly, Spain built massive fortifications at key harbors in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. The most critical st rategic location n the island of Puerto Rico was San Juan harbor, which King Phili 11 called "the key to the Indies." For the first 20 years after San Juan was established in 1521, the town 's defenses consisted mainly of houses local settlers fortified to protect themselves against Carib Indian attacks. The most important of these was Casa Blanca, originally a small blockhouse built in 1525 as a home for the heirs of Juan Ponce de Leon, colonizer and first governor of Puerto Rico . Another st ronghold, La Fortaleza, was completed in 1540 overlooking the anchorage in San Juan Bay. It was so poorly located, however, that the Spanish historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo complained that "only blind men could have chosen such a site for a fort." Old San Juan, founded in 1521, stands on th e western end of a rugged , rocky islet that is bordered on the north by the Atlantic and on the south and west by a vast and graceful bay. On the eastern side, historic San Antonio Bridge joins the islet to the mainland of Puerto Rico. The co lonial city shows its best side from the harbor. Built on natural slopes, the crowded cl usters of buildings ta ke the form of a great amphitheater Building the Forts - - -Fc r-25-fears afte' 1-7&.>,. - -- - engineers and laborers under the direction of Chief Engineer Thomas O'Daly and his successors worked to give San A Plann ed Town By the end of the 18th century, the walls and citadels of San Juan were spread out over more than 200 acres of land. By contrast, all of the churches, houses, shops, and plazas of the city occupied only 62 acres. Following princi ples codified in the Royal Ordinances of Philip II of 1573, San -· framed by a form idable ring of wal ls Juan - co bblestone paving, inner and cast les. A comb ination of ol d , patio. and courtyards, overhanging houses and modern bu ildings imparts balconies, and relig ious shrines. The variety to the cityscape, and gives city's l'llost impressive features are San Juan its co lorful and picturesque the old castles and fortification s, character. It is a city with a proud and which both provided defense and restricted its growth. Now part of the rich heritage, tempered by ancient calamit ies of war, pirate attacks, earth - nati onal historic site, they include the castles of El Morro and San quakes, and hurricanes. Cristobal. El Cafiuelo fort, and most of th e c1 valls. The face of co lonial Spain, und isturbed by modern innovations, can still be seen in t he streets of San Juan a defense-in-depth tem that eould elfH! good garrison repel any · invader. They enlarged and modernized El Morro and San Cristobal, built coastal and harbor batteries at various saUents Col. Thomas O'Daly, an Irish-born engineer, was largely respon sible for creating the San Juan fortifications that stand here today. No along the city wa ll, and extended the land defenses east of San Cristobal. chored in the harbor on the night of November 23, 1595 (above). The f irst effect ive fortification designed to defend San Juan harbor was a round masonry tower built in the 1540s on the rocky headland (e/ morro) at the east side of the harbor entrance. It only had room for four cannon . The water battery, a semicircular platform for three guns, was later constructed over the rocks at the foot of the slope below the tower. In 1591, after an increase in enemy raids on Spanish ships and settlements in the Caribbean, a "hornwork" (so-called because the fortification resembled the horns of a bull) was bu ilt from north to south across the promontory above the tow er t o protect the headland against land attack. For the first time El Morro began to take on the aspects of a proper citadel. El Cafiuelo the 16th century, but This masonry fortification, Dutch attackers burned San Juan de la Cruz (St. it in 1625. This stone fort John of the Cross), is was built in the 1660s usually called El Cafiuelo to help El Morro defend because it stands close the harbor entrance and to the main channel into mouth of the Bayamon San Juan Harbor (below). River, which linked San A circular, wooden stock- Juan to inland settleade defended this site in ,ments. -Ii. ,, ·-~~ its baptism of fire when he attacked a small fleet of Spanish frigates an- Juan was laid out on a . right-angled grid of six streets runn ing from east to west and ::_..---~ s even _ . _,, ~- ~ - . ...... from north to j ... south, organized ~ "· . . around open squares· - - ':::: ~ or plazas. San Juan, like ""- other colonial Spanish cities in the Ame ricas, still retains this rectilinear configuration . portrait of O'Daly exists,' " and this symbolic figure wearing the unifonm of chief engineer honors his contributions to the city's history. The Soldier's Fare San Juan's soldiers and settlers grew food on small plots inside the great walls. Platanos, a banana from Africa, and such West Indian crops as sweet pota- To Spain toes, p umpkin, yucca, malan ga, and yautia, supplemented regular mi litary rations. A''ant O e.an • Terminos BacaJar• •o moa San Juan • • Rio San J tian Portobelo ,...--.....___ ' Santa Chagre • • • Nombre ........._ • cartagena Puerto Maracaibo• Cabel b • de D1os Panama . Marta • Rio Har.ha development of the people of Puerto Rico. Old San Juan possessed many churches, reflecting the longstanding role of the kings of Spain as defender of the Catholic faith and their concern for the religious welfare "\f their su J ct• Charles 111· was called the Enlightened Monarch. Military reforms during his reign (1759-1188) made San Juan a "Defense of the First Order." / , .. I "A Defense of the First Order" --~~ Like many other fortified ports of the Spanish Main, San Juan served a strategic rather than a commercial purpose. It was not a major link in the convoy system; the fabled treasure fleets usually did not stop here on t heir way to Central and South America. San Juan 's fortifications, however, did keep the port and the island from becoming an enemy base for raids upon Spanish settlements and t rade. Spain's European enemies made a number of attempts to do just t hat. In 1595, Sir Francis Drake, the infamous English buccaneer, who in recent years had sacked and pillaged San to Dom ingo, Cartagena, and St. Augustine in Florida, boldly forced the entrance to San Juan harbor to seize a cargo of gold and silver awaiting transport to Spain . Gov. Pedro Suarez Coronel's defenders repu lsed him with heavy losses. Three years later another Englishman, the Earl of Cumberland, successfully besieged El Morro and captured Gov. Anton io de Mosquera. After a brief occupation, an epidemic of dysentery forced Cumberland to abandon his plans to make San Juan a permanent English station in the West Indies. A new governor, Alonso de Mercado, arrived from Spain with fresh troops to repair the defenses. Most important, El Morro's hornwork was rebuilt stronger than ever, and behind its walls a broad new gun deck overlooked the harbor channel. The strengthened fortifications were next put to t he test by the rising co mmercial and naval power of the Dutch in the Caribbean. In 1625, a Dutch fleet under Gen. Boudewijn Hendricksz forced the harbor, captured San Juan, and laid siege to the land side of El Morro. Gov. Juan de Haro's defenders offered stiff resistance and finally drove off the ~~~- invad ers . Before sailing away the Dutch sacked and burned the city, including La Fortaleza, w hich had become the official residence of the governors of Puerto Rico. The Dutch attack. and the occupation of many island in the Lesser Antilles by t he English, French, and Dutch, spurred the building of new defense lines in San Juan. Beg inning in the early 1630s and continuing interm ittent ly for the next 150 years, engineers and workers labored to raise massive walls , some of t hem 50 feet high, around the city. About 1634, on a promontory about a mile east of El Morro, they built a redoubt called San Cristobal. By 1678, as the city walls enclosed the redoubt, San Cristobal began to take on somethi ng of its present design. No new major defense works were undertaken in Puerto Rico until after the Seven Yea rs War (1756-1763), a worldwide conflict that virtually eliminated Fra nce from the Americas and left Spain and Great Britain holding most of t he territory in the Western Hemisphere. With an eye to protecting his holdings in the Caribbean from the potent threat of Brit ish attack , King Charles Ill, who had come to the Span ish th rone in 1759, resolved to make San Juan a "Defense of the First Order." He ordered two Irishmen- Field Marshal Alexander O'Reilly and Ch ief Engineer Thomas O'Daly - to take on the job. In 1765 these officers, who held Spanish military co mmis- sions, started to transform San Juan into one of the mos t powerful strong holds in the Americas. By the end of the 1780s, O'Daly and his military engineers had made El Morro what it is today. They also co mpleted the wall around the city and expanded San Cristobal by digging its deep dry moat and erecting im mense out works. The largest fortress built by Spain in the Americas, San Cristobal mounted more than 450 can non. These formidable land defens s helped Gov. Ramon de Castro' soldiers repulse Sir Ralph Abercrornby's 7,000-rnan British army when it besieged San Juan in 1797. During the 1800s, most of Spairi's New World colonies revolted an d gai ned their independence. By the 1890s only Cuba and Puerto Rico remained as remnants of the former far-f lung Spanish empire in the Americas. When a revoluti on in Cuba sparked the Spanish-American War, a U.S. naval flotil la under Adm. William T. Sampson bombarded San Juan on May 12, 1898. (Sampson was trying to find the main Spanish war fleet under Adm. Pascual Cervera y Topete.) No great damage was done, nor was there any more Un ited States military action against the city. In Ju ly 1898, Gen. Nelson Miles landed American troops on the southern coasts of Puerto Rico. An armistice with Spain was signed as his soldiers were advancing to the outskirts of San Juan. Spai n's 400year rule of the island came to an end on October 18, 1898, when the defenses of San Juan were formally turned over to the U.S. Army. In World War I, Puerto Rico was an outpost for detecting and control ling hostile activities directed against the Panama Canal. Many of the old San Juan bunkers and batteries were adapted to 20th century mi litary use. El Morro was converted into part of the sprawling administrative, housing, and hospital complex known as Fort Brooke. Du ring World War II, the U.S. Army added coastal defense observation post s and hidden command and commun icat ions centers in both El Morro and San Cristobal. These blocky concrete additions can still be seen. Today, San Juan National Historic Site is managed and protected by the National Park Service. These weathered battlements, so important in protecting Puerto Rico from enemy occupation , are landmarks in the cultural and historical heritage of the island. fo~ but~;~~ i~e - ·· Garitas outer angels of bastions to the and along .the city walls. · base of the great wa lls. ,: A striking feature of El Asentry posted in them The sil houette of the Morro and other f rtifi·cations of Old Sar' Juan could keep a sharp watch garita is often used as - on not ol)ly the landward a symbol of Puerto . ~ ,_,. · ._ : are the garitas (s ntry and sea\Nafd 51pproaches Rico. · <. .\ ; :'. •. •. _:". boxes) located at the El Morro: From Tower to Fortress The name of th is massive fortification is Castillo de San Felipe def Morro, which means "Castle of St. Philip of the Headland. " Named for the patron saint of Spain's King Phi lip II (15561598), it is the oldest of the two great forts that anchored the sea and land ward defenses of San Juan. Bautista Antonelli, a prominent Italian engineer in the service of Philip II, contributed t he first design concepts in the 16th century. The way El Morro looks today is largely the work of Thomas O'Daly, a Spanish military engineer born in Ireland. The fort attained its present form late in the 18th century. The earliest military structu re placed on t his headland was a round tower made of stone and resembling the chess piece known as a "rook" or "castle." Built in 1539-40, it once stood as the only defensive structu re protecting the entrance to San Juan harbor. The towe r, which was so small it cou ld only mount four cannon, is still there today, but it has been incorporated into El Morro 's Santa Barbara Bastion and can be seen only from within. When th e U.S. Navy bombarded San Juan in 1898, a shell penetrated El Morro and lodged in the tower's wall. Fragments of that shell are still visible in - - - - - - - - - ---the-wall, taAgiele-reminders of the Spanish-American War in Puerto Rico. El Morro m 1595 El Morro evolved into its present shape between 1539 and 1786. From the ancient gun platform (the water battery) washed by the Atlantic, this huge, six-tiered pi le of sandstone sweeps upward 145 feet to the broad , wi ndswept ramparts that crown th e promontory and anchor the corners of the land defenses - the Ochoa and Austria Bastions. They are connected by a curtai n wall through which a sally port allows entry to the fortress. Cannon mounted on the bastions and atop the curtain wall could cover the land approach, as well as that from the sea. Storerooms, gunrooms, troop quarters, chapel, and prison surround a large courtyard or assembly plaza. Huge cisterns lie beneath. Ramps, tunnels, and stairways offer .JY:=:,:.:::'1i'.;31:i::::;;:,,. ·· ·. acc e s to the different parts of the fort. I Morro is the chief tourist attraction of Old San Juan. /;_:_~·:_:,"..: ,. Approach ing El Morro from the land ward side , you quickly notice that t he fort is set very low in the gro und, a marked contrast to its dramatic appearance from the ocean side. Such a low fort pro 1le is pical of good military cons rue ion o he 16 h o 18th cen unes, vhen ortresses were designed to o er as small a arge as possible to besiegers' cannon. By digg ing a dry moat along he entire lengt h of the landward side of El Morro, the main wall could be sunk low in til e ground and-still mainta in considerable height from base to parapet. This effectively frust rates any attempts to scale the walls. The moat itself is yet another obstacle, wh ich any attacker would have to overcome to take the fort. Three lighthouses have stood on El Morro 's sixt h level. The first one was constructed in 1846 . A second lighthouse replaced it in 1876, and the th ird in 1899 -1900. The El Morro lighthouse took a direct hit during the Spanish-American War bombari'ilment, but the brick foundation was salvaged and used to erect the lighf house in use here today. This aid to~_.,~.._.,.,,';~. -.·-'. navigation sti ll serves to help ships ...~ entering San Juan harbor, one of the, _..• busiest port s in the Caribbean. · ~ "'.~ .&! <§> . ~ -~­ ·:..,.. ~ <;-- ' SilE~els of Defense El Morro was the heart of the San Juan fo rtifications, with its protection against sea attack. Batteries of cannon on four of six levels were deadly deterrents to any enemy warships trying to enter San Juan Bay. The sixth level provided defense against land attack. ~ The first level of defense was the water batt ry 11). Cannon mounted here could break the w terline planking of vessel sailing into the harbor. El Morro's second level was the tower (2) , now m the Santa Barbara Ba lion. The third level, the casemate guns (3), faced seaward toward incoming traffic and had the advantages of range and visibility over ships' cannon. Gunners here would try for hull and deck damage; with luck they might cut a mast or two. · E! Cafiuelo to provide a crossfire against enemy vessels trying to .enter ,the harbor. Like a great prow jutting seaward, the gun tier of Santa Most of the guns and Barbara gives El Morro gunners here were pro- the look of a battleship. tected from exploding projectiles by bombproof At level f ive, the guns of casemates or gunrooms. the Carmen Battery (5) supported the Santa Gunners at level four, the Barbara Battery. They Santa Barbara Battery also protected the entire (4), had even more range western sector of Old and visibility. But at close San Juan, as well as a range they aimed at sails portion of the eastern and rigging, and cut them portion of the city. to pieces with canister and chain or bar shot. Because El Morro was Named after the patron vulnerable from the land saint of artillerym en, this side, a sixth tier of guns was the largest harbor pointed landward. They battery. It was designed were mounted on a barto work with the guns of rie r wall called a horn- w ork (6) because its plan resembled the outreaching horns of a bull. A curtain or connecting wall joined Austria Bastion to Ochoa Bastion. In front of the hornwork, a wood drawbridge spanned a dry moat. (The drawbridge is now a masonry causeway). Beyond that was cleared la nd, a glacis, smoothed and sloped so there was no shelter for attacking troops from the cannoneers and musketeers who lined the fort walls. Hidden beneath the glacis were underground tunnels known as mining galleries, in which kegs of gunpowder cou ld be placed to deter enemy siege operations. San Cristobal: Def n e Here, as at El Morro, the military engineers placed their fortification on high ground provided by nature . Castillo de San Cristobal, or "St. Christopher Castle," was named in the 17th century for t he large hill on which it is built. Rising nearly 150 feet above sea level on the northeast edge of old San Juan about a mile from El Morro, it is the largest of San Juan 's forts . Unlike El Morro, whose main job was to preve nt enemy ships from entering the harbor, San Cristobal protected the land approaches to San Juan from the east. Th is massive fortification was first tested in battle in 1797, when Sir Ra lph Abercromby's 7,000 British troops unsuccessfully attacked the city. A hundred years later, in 1898, Spanish troops fired the fi rst shot of the Spanish-American War in Puerto Rico from one of San Crist6bal's gun batteries that faced north toward the Atlantic. The need to protect land approaches to San Juan was fi rst shown when the Earl of Cumberland's English troops swept through the city in 1598 on their way to El Morro . The Dutch attack of 1625 conf irmed the need. In 1634 San Cristobal was begun as a small triangular-shaped redoubt. As many as 400 men a day - some day laborers, some convicts, some soldiers of the Toledo Regiment, and some slaves-worked feverishly to enclose all of San Juan behind a fortified wall. By the ti me it was completed in the mid-1780s, San Cristobal had grown into a network of interdependent fortifications covering about 27 acres of land. It remains a spectacular example of the "defense-in-depth" principle. Defense-in-depth means, simply, that each part of a fo rt is supported by one or more other parts. If a fort has a single barrier and the enemy breaks th rough it, its defense is broken. But if a fort has several barriers, each l1lgher and stronger than the one in front of it, and the enemy captures ne of them , the attacker can still b driven out by fi re from th e barrier behind it. dry moat. Beyond the moat is a sizable plaza de armas (open area) leading out to a strong, arrow-shaped fort called El Abanico (The Fan) because of its triangular shape. Seaward from El Abanico are Santa Teresa, an ocean ~ battery, and La Princesa, whose guns _J could f ire both to sea and land. These works, in w hole or in part , are sti ll standing today. Other vita l partcr of ) the San Cristobal system - the §ast _,. _ wall, the Santi ago Ravelin front ing •=!!Clii~ t he Santiago Gate, and the Santiago Bastion on the southeastern cofner of the city wall - were demolished when t he city expanded in 1897, The m in part of San Cristobal is a hornwork that essentially forms a continuation o he city walls. In front of the hornwork are he San Carlos Ravelin and the Trin idad Counterguard , both surrounded by a deep, The hig hest part of San Cristob I is he cavalier (caballero), a large gu n platform built on top o he hornwork. Its formidable armamen comm ands the eas ern approaches. The ewer- ing height of the cavali er was made feasible on ly by followi ng one of the most important ru les in fort construction: protect the foundations from direct hits and an enemy cannot destroy the wal ls. The base of the cava lier was protected by the hornwork; t he hornwork by the raveli n and count erguard; and they in turn by the plaza de armas. San Cristobal took on its present shape after 1765, when Chief Engineer Thomas O'Daly started work that would make this fortress the backbone of an improved and en larged defense system for San Juan. The project, th e largest fortress built by Spain in the New World , was completed 20 years later under the direct ion of Juan Fran cisco Mestre, w ho became chief engineer fo llowing the death of O'Daly in 1781. During the 19th century, Spanish officials modified San Crist6bal several ti mes, as did the American troops who garrisoned San Juan in the years following th e Spanish-America n War. In 1942, following Un ited Stat es en try into World War 11, American troops installed a harbor defense system of concrete bunkers and observation posts to update the 18t h century defenses. Although most of what we see today in San Crist6bal is the design of Engineers O'Daly and Mestre in the years 1765-1785, the fortress still retains visible elements of all its major stages of development from the 17th to the 20th century, a fascinat ing study of t he evolution of military engineering. Atlantic Ocean Countless hours of musket and cannon drills in the tropical sun kept t he garrison of San Juan ready to repel attacks. Today the forts still fly the white flag with the Cross of Burgundy, the I Glacis · .. old military flag of the Spanish empire under which these soldiers served, a re minder of 400 years -0f Spanish heritage. .l;,I; ! ~~ eventually expected to belong. The militia included whites, mulattoes, and, in San Juan, free black men (above left}. Both the Fixed Regiment and the Disciplined Militia helped drive the British army from the island during the 1797 invasion. Visiting the Park Other Points of Interest San Juan National Historic Site is made up of the Spanish-built forts of El Morro, San Cristobal, and El Caiiuelo, and the city walls. El Caiiuelo is temporarily closed to visitors, but El Morro and San Cristobal are open daily except December 25. A fee is charged. If you have time after you have seen Alcaldia San Juan's city hall, bu ilt El Morro and San Cristobal, you wi ll in 1602. want to discover some of Old San The Institute of Puerto Rican Juan's ot her historic and cultural Culture Preserves the history and culture of Puerto Rico. sites, a few of w hich are ident ified Q Casa Blanca Ancestral home of on the map at right. Because th e the Ponce de Leon fam ily, now a historic streets are narrow and often museum of 16th-and 17th -century congested by heavy traffic, we enart and fu rni shings. courage you to explore by walking. La Fortaleza Oldest governor's It is the best and easiest way to get mansion in continuous use in the to know the city. Except for Fort San Ger6nimo, located behind the Cari be New World, a part of the World Hilton in Puerta de Tierra, all sites are Heritage Site. within easy walking distance of San Jose Church Built 1532-39, El Morro or San Cristobal. Buses, second oldest church in continuous trolleys, and taxis are available for use in the New World. those who want them. San Juan Cathedral Built in 1540, burifll site of Ponce de Le6n. Maps and detailed information about San Juan Gate The traditional Old San Juan's many points of inentrnnce to Old San Juan. terest can be obtained at th e to urist Cl) Ballaja Barracks Museum of the info rmati on centers near the cruise Am ericas highlights colorful folk art. ship docks, the Alcaldia on Plaza de La Casa del Libro Museum of the art and history of books through five Armas, and Paseo de la Princesa. centuries. Parking in the historic district is extremely limited. Vehicles are not permitted on the grounds of El Morro, so be sure to leave enough ti me to walk the 0.25-mile distance from Calle Norzagaray to the drawbridge. It is an easy stroll of about five minutes. The site is administered by t he National Park Serv ice, U.S. Department of the Interior. More Information Fort San Crist6bal Norzagaray Street Old San Juan, PR 00901 787-729 -6777 www.nps.gov 0 9 ATLANTIC 0 0 0 0 0 SAN JUAN BAY No rth <D 0.25 Kilometer 0.25 Mile Old San Juan Today OCEAN For Your Safety A World Heritage Site Watch your step and you r children as you explore the ramparts, stairways, and tunnels of the forts of Old San Juan. These ancient, weathered surfaces are rugged and uneven, and frequent passing tropical rain showers can make them wet and sl ippery. Good sturdy footwear will make your visit safer and more pleasant. The tropical sun is strong, and we urge you to bring an d wear a hat during your day in Old San Juan. What do the Pyram ids of Egypt and the Great Wall of Chi na have in common with the forts of Old San Juan? Or the Al hambra in Spain or Chartres Cathedral in France? Or the Taj Mahal in Ind ia and Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas high in the An des? All are monuments whose splendor enriches each of us, and all are World Heritage Sites, whose exceptional universal cultural value has been recogn ized by the international commun ity. These World Heritage Sites have been pledged by their nations to be preserved and protected, with the assent and support of the entire comm un ity of nations, for future generations as the greatest treasures of humankind. Please help us safeguard this special place by treating it with care and respect. Keep aw ay from the edges of the steep wa lls. To prevent falls and injuries, keep you r ch ildren from climbing on cannon ball pyramids and cann on. Food and drink are not permitted inside El Morro and San Cristobal. Smoking is also prohibited. Pets must be leashed at all times on park lands, and t hey are not allowed inside the historic forts. Stow trash in receptacles.