Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro

View from the west side of the harbor bay

The Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro is a fortress in the Cuban Havana . It is located on a rock called "El Morro" on the east side of the entrance to the harbor bay and is now used as a museum.

history

The fortress was built from 1589 by the Spanish colonial power based on a design by the Italian architect Juan Bautista Antonelli . It should protect the city from pirate attacks. The construction work lasted until 1630, before the construction of the large complex was completely finished. Previously there were two observation posts at the same location, which had been replaced by a stone tower in 1563.

For a long time the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro was considered impregnable, but in 1762 its occupation had to surrender after a two-month British siege in the Seven Years War . The facility had previously been badly damaged by continuous fire and a powder explosion. The Peace of Paris of 1763 brought Havana and its fortresses back under Spanish rule, which resulted in the rebuilding of Castillo.

description

The fortress has a polygonal plan. Its walls were built from stone extracted from the rock on site.

The complex is equipped with twelve large cannons that bear the names of the twelve apostles . Every evening at 9 p.m. a shot is fired as a reminder that cannons used to announce the closing of Havana's city gates.

The high lighthouse of the fortress, which is so striking today , does not come from its early days, but was only built in December 1845. It is 30 meters high and five meters in diameter.

literature

• Tamara Blanes Martín: Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro de La Habana. Historia y arquitectura . Letras Cubanas, Havanna 1998, ISBN 959-100438-9 .

Web links

Commons : Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information about the fortress on oldhavanaweb.com (English)
• Information about the fortress on cubaheritage.org (English)
• Brief history

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} oldhavanaweb.com ( Memento of the original from April 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. As of January 8, 2009.  

Coordinates: 23 ° 9 ′ 1.5 ″  N , 82 ° 21 ′ 24 ″  W.