Castillo San Cristóbal (San Juan)
Fortress in San Juan, Puerto Rico / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Castillo San Cristóbal[3] is a fortress in San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was built by the Spanish to protect against land-based attacks on the historic city of Old San Juan. It is part of San Juan National Historic Site.
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Castillo San Cristóbal | |
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Location | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
Coordinates | 18.4672°N 66.1111°W / 18.4672; -66.1111 |
Built | 1783 |
Governing body | National Park Service |
Official name | Castillo San Cristóbal |
Type | Cultural |
Criteria | vi |
Designated | 1983 (7th session) |
Part of | La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico |
Reference no. | 266[1] |
Region | North America and West Indies |
Official name | Castillo San Cristóbal |
Designated | October 15, 1966 |
Part of | San Juan National Historic Site |
Reference no. | 66000930[2] |
Castillo San Cristóbal is the largest fortification built by the Spanish in the New World. When it was finished in 1783, it covered about 27 acres of land and partly encircled the city of San Juan. Entry to the city was sealed by San Cristóbal's double gates. After close to a hundred years of relative peace in the area, part of the fortification (about a third) was demolished in 1897 to help ease the flow of traffic in and out of the walled city.
This fortress was built on a hill originally known as the Cerro de la Horca or the Cerro del Quemadero, changed to Cerro de San Cristóbal in celebration of the Spanish victories ejecting English and Dutch interlopers from the Saint Christopher island in the Lesser Antilles. At the time, it formed part of the insular territorial glacis of Puerto Rico.
Castillo San Cristóbal also contains five cisterns that were used for the storage of water during the ages of the Spanish Colony. They are extremely large (24 ft tall, 17 ft wide, and 57 ft long) and were used as bomb shelters during World War II.