La Cabaña

The Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña or simply "La Cabaña" (Spanish for "The Cabin") is a ten- hectare large bastion-like fortress in Havana ( Cuba ). It is located on the east bank of the narrow entrance to the "Bahía de La Habana" (Spanish for "Bay of Havana") and connects directly to the " Castillo del Morro ". It was built between 1763 and 1774 according to the plans of the Spanish engineer Silvestre Abarca. La Cabaña is considered the largest Spanish fort in America .

history

Fortifications of the fort

In 1762, Great Britain conquered the Spanish colony of Havana and was able to occupy it for a full eleven months. In the Peace of Paris , Great Britain eventually exchanged Havana for Florida . After the recovery, the Spanish King Carlos III. the construction of a huge defense system. With 4,000 Mexican slaves abducted from the Yucatán peninsula , construction began on November 4, 1763. When King Carlos III. learned that the cost of the fortress would amount to the then unimaginable sum of 14 million pesos, he is said to have asked for binoculars, because: "Such an expensive building should be visible from Madrid ." The construction took eleven years before the fort could be completed in 1774.

With its numerous protective walls, terraces, trenches, drawbridges, soldiers' quarters, cisterns, storage rooms and vast amounts of cannons, the fortress was henceforth the largest in the New World and was almost impregnable. The thick protective wall, made of rocks, extends over 700 m in length around the entire fortress.

Alley inside the fortress

In 1871 the poet Juan Clemente Zenea was executed on the "Teraza de San Augustín" for his separatist views.

On January 3, 1959, guerrilla troops of the " Movement of July 26 " around Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara occupied La Cabaña and set up the "Comandancia del Che" in the building of the former residence of the Spanish military governor. In the command center, Che Guevara now had his official seat as the chief investigator of the revolution . The fortress itself was also used as a prison for political prisoners and was the scene of hundreds of executions by shooting in 1959/1960 alone .

Today the fortress is used as a base for the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias or “FAR” (Spanish for “Cuban Revolutionary Forces”) in addition to being used for tourists .

Attractions

Fortress church

Behind the main entrance of the fortress is the “Bastei Baluardo di San Ambrosio” and the “Teraza de San Augustín”. Soviet nuclear missiles from the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis are shown here.

The “Museo Monográfico” explains the history of the fortress using historical photos and ancient writings. Weapons, ammunition and other military-historical objects can be viewed in the "Museo de Armas y Fortificaciones". At the parade ground of La Cabaña is the fortress-own church.

The “Comandancia del Che” is now open to the public as a museum and displays personal items by Ernesto Che Guevara. His guns, glasses and camera can be seen. His originally preserved office can also be visited.

Traders sell typical Cuban souvenirs in the alleys of the fortress.

There is a fee to enter the fortress. Tickets can be purchased at the entrance. Tourists pay in convertible pesos . Cuban citizens are allowed to pay a significantly reduced fee in Peso Cubano .

Cannon firing ceremony

Fortification walls

Every evening at La Cabaña "El cañonazo de las nueve" takes place, the cannon-firing ceremony. Soldiers of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces fire a cannon shot. The soldiers wear uniforms from the second half of the 18th century. This tradition has been cultivated since colonial times and was only interrupted in World War II.

The shot, which was initially fired by a ship at the end of the 17th century, was intended to inform the inhabitants of Havana that the city gates will be closed or opened and the chain to the port entrance will be tightened or lowered. The opening shot sounded at 4.30 a.m. and the closing shot at 8 p.m.

With the completion of the fort in 1774, La Cabaña took over the daily cannon shot.

Even when the then Chief Governor of Cuba, Domingo Dulce Garay, had the city walls in Old Havana torn down in the middle of the 19th century , this tradition was not abolished.

Since the first US intervention in Cuba (1898–1902), only one cannon shot has been fired at 9 p.m.

During the Second World War, Cuba was an ally of the USA . As a result, the government suspended the ceremony and had the chief of the Cuban army justify the measure with the words: “Gunpowder must be saved, ladies and gentlemen. We live in times of war. ”More likely than the scarce gunpowder reserves for the daily cannon shot is the content of a press release, according to which German submarines in the waters off Cuba could have determined the location of the capital more precisely through the cannon shot. Despite all protests from the inhabitants of Havana, the tradition was only reintroduced after the end of the war.

After the restoration work in the 1980s, cannon fire was converted into the ceremonial form practiced today in 1986. Under the strict orders of an officer, as was common in the Spanish infantry at that time, several gunners, a lighter, a standard bearer and a hand drum beater carry out the ceremony. It ends in cannon fire at 9 p.m.

Today the dome of the Capitol lights up with the cannon shot and is considered to be the starting signal for Cuban nightlife in the capital .

The cannon firing ceremony starts at 8.45 p.m. and is included in the entrance fee to the fortress.