Construction of the castle was begun in 1536 (three years after the founding of Cartagena) atop the Hill of San Lazaro. Originally named for the hill it stood upon, the fortress was later renamed for King Phillip of Spain and the then governor of Cartagena, the Marquis of Bajaras. The site atop San Lazaro Hill commands a 360 degree view of the city below and all possible approaches to the city from land or sea. The fortress was expanded several times over the 400 years of the Spanish Empire until it was the largest Spanish military structure of its kind in the New World.
A wide switchback ramp rises up the hill from the flatlands below past a series of guard houses and gates to the point of this wooden staircase. At the top of the stairs is the only entrance into the fortress itself. In colonial times, a key point in the defense plan in times of attack was the immediate destruction of this wooden staircase, rendering the castle impossible to enter from below.
Four sentry boxes stood on the corners of the irregularly shaped fort. From these sentry boxes, no one approaching the castle by any method from any direction could do so undetected.
In the event of approaching enemies, the sentries would signal the bell tower at the castle's highest point, and a set of bell signals would ring out across the city warning residents of impending danger.
Over time, as the fortress was expanded, a series of bastions and batteries made it impregnable.
At the peak of Spanish power, upwards of 30 cannon protected the fortress.
In 1697, prior to the completion of all fortifications and expansions, the fort was breached by the French pirate Baron de Pontis, on an expedition undertaken with the full approval of King Louis XIV.
Louis was desperate for money to shore up his fleet against the British and the Dutch. Pontis just wanted to get rich.
At the same time, the leaders of the city of Cartagena and the commanders of the fortress had grown complacent and prideful in the massive size of their fortifications. They believed that just the immense appearance of the castle itself would ward off any marauders.
Pontis entered the Bay of Cartagena with 7 French ships and quickly took the city. He then proceeded to plunder its treasures, fleeing to France with the largest treasure in history ever captured by a single pirate. Louis was delighted with the loot, and Pontis became an immensely wealthy and influential man in the Court of the Sun King.
Spain meanwhile paid for additional expansions of the fortress to bring it to its current state, and forever after it was impenetrable. The fort even resisted an attack from British and American forces in 1741 in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias. Those American forces by the way were led by Lawrence Washington, elder brother of the first President of the United States of America.
At strategic points around the fortress, old cannons were mounted vertically in concrete to act as leverage points in hoisting supplies and arms up the walls of the castle using ropes and pulleys.
In addition to the structure above ground, the castle is penetrated by an extensive system of tunnels that provided additional protection to soldiers, as well as a means of quickly traversing the castle out of the range of arms fire. This is one of the entrances to the tunnels.
In addition to protecting soldiers and moving them about the fortress, the tunnels were built with a series of small storage niches to either side where stores of arms, food, and water were kept. The complete extent of this tunnel system, which reaches all the way to the bottom of the Hill of San Lazaro, has never been completely explored.
Tim in front of the Colombian flag that tops the fortress.
View of modern Cartagena from atop Castillo San Felipe de Bajaras.
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