The greatest fortress built by the Spanish - Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, Colombia

The historic city of Cartagena de Indias by the Caribbean Sea, is a place where you feel like being back to another era. The historic city is surrounded by a 13 kilometer stone wall with some old cannons. The old town with cobblestone streets, beautiful colonial architecture, balconies, plazas and massive churches is Unesco's World Heritage List. But there is other sights worth paying a visit. Especially the fortress, Castillo San Felipe de Barajas, located only a few kilometers from the old town, strategically located on a hill overlooking both sea and land. It is considered the greatest fortress that the Spanish ever built in their colonies. It was given the name Filipe to honor the Spanish King Philip IV. If there is any fortress that should be visited in this area, this is it. It is impressive.

Cartegena

The city was founded in 1533 and it didn't take long before it had developed into a prosperous town that became an important port where storehouses were set up to store goods until it could be shiped to Spain. That made Cartegena become a target for pirates (one of the most famous was Sir Francis Drake). Because of the piratsy, the Spanish colonial power had to built forts along the coast and around the city.

The castle

San Filipe was one of these. It was built by African slaves. Even though the constructions were complete by 1536, the complex was expanded during the period 1639 and 1657. As it expanded, it took up all the place on the hill. As you walk around you will find information boards with drawings and imformation, that will help to understand how it was built and how it worked. It is constructed as a triangular shaped structure with 8 batteries, in addition to a garrison with 200 soldiers.

Castillo San Felipe de Barajas did experience several attempts and were involved in many battles. During the years between 1739 and 1748 the Battle of Cartegena took place. It was a conflict between Great Britain and Spain that was fought mostly in the Caribbean where the British tried to get hold of importent Spanish key ports - Cartagena being one of them. After several attacks, the British failed, suffering thousand of fatalities. This victory did demonstrate that Spain was able to defend the position it had.

This whole fortification consists of a series of walls, wide at the base and narrow toward the parapet, forming a formidable pattern of bunkers. The batteries and parapets protect one another, making it practically impossible to take the only the battery without having to take the whole defence system.

There are lots of tunnels inside the fortress. These once functioned as a mean of transportation, like food etc, but also for evacuation. Only some are open to the public: I did go inside some of them. I did feel more comfortable doing it where I saw several other people. Otherwise it would have been an eerie visit, even though there were some light.

I don't know exactly when the castle stopped functioning as part of a defense system, but when it did, it was left to itself and the tropical vegetation for decades. It wasn't until UNESCO listed both the historic center of Cartagena and the castle as a World Heritage Site that anything happened. Since the 1990s, it has been used for cultural events and summits organized by the Colombian government, etc. It is now an attractions that I think goes hand in hand with the history of Cartagena. Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is definitly a formidable piece military architecture.