castles by the sea

Havana’s fortresses bear testimony to the swashbuckling days when kings fought for the riches of the New World. Juliet Barclay gives a guided tour

Photography by JORGE GAVILONDO

havana’s architecture is the most spectacular of all the Antillean cities and its defensive constructions are dramatic, elegant and exceptionally well preserved. Their presence reflects the city’s very raison d’etre: for hundreds of years Havana’s port served as the principal place for fleets of treasure-laden Spanish ships to foregather for their perilous voyage across the Atlantic to Andalusia.

Havana’s official title was Llave del Nuevo Mundo y Antemural de las Indias Occidentales– Key to the New World and Bastion of the West Indies. Ships loaded with staggering quantities of gold, emeralds, silver, pearls, medicinal herbs, dyestuffs and viridian quetzal feathers destined for Spanish archbishops’ copes sailed from Colombia and Panama to Havana. Yet further vessels came from Mexico, laden to the gunwhales not only with local silver but also with all the treasures of the Orient transported annually from the Philippines to Acapulco in the Manila galleon: jewels, ivories, enamels, lacquer, mother of pearl, coral, silks, embroideries, glass and porcelain. All these astonishing treasures were brought every year to Cuba’s capital, whose position on the island’s northern coast provided the perfect departure point for a return voyage in convoy.

Pressure upon the Spanish crown to protect its treasures resulted in the construction of port defences all around the Gulf of Mexico and beyond, but few cities were so strongly or so effectively fortified as Havana. The entrance to the harbour was guarded by two formidable forts: the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta and the Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magos del Morro. Further down the shore of the harbour stood the Castillo de la Real Fuerza. Two more fortresses supported the port’s defences, to the east of Havana at Cojimar and to the west at the mouth of the River Almendares (then called the River Chorrera). However, the failure of the Spanish crown adequately to garrison or supply their American defences led to its European rivals becoming increasingly interested in Havana. “This great Island is easie to be conquer’d…” wrote the governor of Providence in 1665, “they much dread an old Prophecy amongst them, viz. that within a short time the English will as freely walk the streets of Havana, as the Spaniards now do.’’

On January 4, 1762, George II of England declared war on Spain and a plan for an attack on Havana was swiftly put in hand. Ambitious and well organised, it was the largest combined naval and military operation that had ever been attempted, and Havana’s fortifications had been carefully observed by British spies.

The larger of the two castles at the entrance to the harbour was built on a rocky headland, a morro. The site had been part of Havana’s official defences since April 30, 1551 when the town council had ordered that a light be shown from ABOVE: The Battery of the Twelve Apostles, built below the Castillo del Morro, faces the diminutive but impressively armed Castillo de San Salvador de La Punta on the western shore of the harbour mouth. To the left of the photograph is a distant glimpse of the Castillo de la Real Fuerza. RIGHT: The lamplit interior of the Fortaleza de la Cabaña The entrance to the harbour was guarded by two formidable forts: the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta and the Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magos del Morro. Further down the shore of the harbour stood the Castillo de la Real Fuerza the cliff when French vessels were seen. When Governor Juan de Tejeda took up his post in Havana in 1589 the construction of the Morro castle was initiated by the Italian military engineer Giovanni Baptista Antonelli, who also drew up plans for the Castillo de San Salvador de La Punta on the opposite shore of the entrance to the harbour. The construction process of both forts was complicated by arguments between architect and governor, but after many years of dilatoriness and disagreement the castles were completed and functioned as the primary defences of the port for over two centuries

It was upon the Castillo del Morro that the English attack of 1762 came to be centred. Having reduced the castles of Cojimar and La Chorrera and deliberately used the action at the latter to draw the Spanish defenders away from their primary object of the city and its fortifications, the English turned their attentions to the mouth of the harbour. The most dangerous deficiency in Havana’s defences was the absence of any fortification on the Cabaña hill, a long ridge overlooking not only the harbour and the city but also the Castillo del Morro; Giovanni Baptista Antonelli had declared that “whoever possesses the Cabaña will possess Havana’’. The English swiftly gained this strategic advantage and a long siege ensued. Despite the valour with which the Morro castle was defended by its commander, don Luis Vicente de Velasco Isla, the English took the fortress on July 30, 1762 by dint of mining the towering walls on the eastern side and rushing in through the breach thus created. “The city was inexpressibly grieved at the loss of the Morro,’’ wrote a Jesuit priest who lived in Havana at the time. “It was at four o’clock in the afternoon, and those who saw the flag of St George fluttering from the fort were unable to believe it.’’ After the capture of the Morro the English guns were turned upon the Punta and the city, and on August 13 Havana surrendered to enemy forces.

The Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes Magos del Morro still towers over the entrance to Havana’s harbour. A lighthouse stands on its northwestern corner and the fort is linked to the shore 500 feet below by a series of ramps. The building also houses cisterns, a chapel, officers’ quarters, a wine cellar, stables, dungeons and vaults. It is an extraordinarily beautiful and evocative construction in which one fully expects at any moment to come face to face with the shades of Luis de Velasco and the soldiers of both nationalities who lost their lives in the bloodthirsty battle which took place on its north-eastern bastion in 1762. If one can descend the crumbling stone staircase to the bottom of the moat without being stopped by its guards, one can appreciate the staggering depth of the moat cut into the rock as the walls of the castle rear up above one’s head.

There are several ways to enter the castle. The grand portal facing the city of Havana is impressive enough, with its commanding height and cavernous entrance hall, but one’s appreciation of the building is immeasurably increased if one approaches it from the southeastern corner whence an extraordinary bombproof passage leads to the imposing main doors. As one walks along it, the worn paving stones gleam in the subdued light and brief glimpses of the sparkling sea appear through the small windows overlooking the harbour. Within the castle all is dazzling sunlight, searing heat and utter aridity. The elegant angles of its bastions reverberate with the boom and hiss of the breakers which foam at the foot of the promontory. On the western side stands the Battery of the Twelve Apostles, the name of which refers to the 12 vast cannon that were sited there, whose angle interlinked with that of the guns at La Punta to threaten a punishing crossfire. On the seaward side a series of enormous and elegant brick vaults leads to the Queen’s Platform, from which one may contemplate the oceanic expanses to the north.

Descending from the heart of the Morro castle through a dark tunnel in which stand the enormous terracotta urns which used to hold the oil for the lighthouse’s lamp, one emerges onto the Platform of the Star, upon whose rocky wall may be seen a cracked and worn inscription carved below an elegant stellar form: “In the reign of King Philip II and under the authority of the governor and captain general of the Island of Cuba Field Marshall Juan de Tejeda, Baptista Antonelli fortified this place, 20th September 1589.’’

The Castillo de San Salvador de La Punta on the opposite side of the harbour mouth is altogether more humble in appearance, being low and relatively simple in construction, but its principal functions were to support the Morro by raking with its fire any vessel misguided enough to attempt unauthorised entrance to the harbour, and to support the western terminal of a hefty chain boom, supported on wooden floats, which used to be wound out across the harbour mouth each evening.

On February 10, 1763 a peace treaty was signed in Paris by France, Spain and England and Havana was returned to the Spanish in exchange for Florida. The military engineer Silvestre Abarca was appointed to draw up an extensive plan for “The Defence of Havana and her Castles’’. The principle feature of his proposal was the fortification of the Cabaña hill and between 1764 and 1774 an enormous military edifice was constructed there. Named San Carlos de la

Cabaña in honour of Carlos II of Spain, it was not only the largest fort in the Americas but also staggeringly expensive: its construction cost over 14 million pesos. Rumour had it that when King Carlos heard that the fort had been completed he requested a telescope, remarking that for that price the building should be large enough to be visible from Spain.

The Cabaña is perhaps less dramatic than the Morro, but is at least as impressive in terms of the complexity and elegance of its construction. The vast outworks on its landward side, its long internal streets and the rows of 18th-century cannon still ranged along its platforms create a powerful impression of military might. A cañonazo is still fired from the Cabaña every night at nine o’clock. This used to be the signal for the closing of the city gates and the raising of the chain to seal the harbour mouth between El Morro and La Punta. Although both the gates and the chain are long gone, the gun’s shattering roar transports one back to the dark and dangerous nights of Havana in the 18th century.