Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas
Castillo San Felipe
Interesting facts
- In the night assault of 20 April 1741, British grenadiers found their scaling ladders about ten feet too short for San Lázaro's walls.
- Two Spanish deserters guiding the British attack led the column not to the fort's low southern walls but up a steep slope into point-blank musket fire.
- Blas de Lezo held the hill with about 650 men in a newly dug trench, 300 inside the fort and a reserve of 200 marines and sailors.
- Expecting victory, British souvenir makers had already struck medals showing Spain humbled by Admiral Vernon; examples are kept in Madrid's Naval Museum.
- Lawrence Washington fought in the Cartagena campaign and later named his Virginia home Mount Vernon after his commander, Admiral Edward Vernon.
- The 1741 siege lasted 67 days and cost the British around 18,000 dead or incapacitated, most of them struck down by disease rather than gunfire.
- After military use ended, tropical vegetation overgrew the walls and soil filled the tunnels; systematic restoration began in 1928.
- The fortress has hosted state dinners for the Non-Aligned Movement summit in 1995 and the Summit of the Americas in 2012.
- A bronze statue of Blas de Lezo stands before the fortress, and nearby a 1943 bronze sculpture of a pair of old shoes honours the poet Luis Carlos López.
Why it is worth it
On San Lázaro hill, just outside the walled old city of Cartagena, a mass of sloping stone ramparts climbs in tiers towards a summit battery. The Castillo San Felipe de Barajas was placed here to command every approach to the port by land and by sea.
The fortress was built in 1639 and took its name from Philip IV of Spain; it was originally called the Castillo de San Lázaro. The work was carried out by enslaved Africans under Spanish direction. The first fortress was triangular, with eight batteries and a garrison of 200 soldiers and four gunners. In 1697, during the War of the Grand Alliance, the French privateer Baron de Pointis captured it. It was repaired in 1739 by José de Herrera y Sotomayor, and two years later, in the War of Jenkins' Ear, it stood at the centre of the battle in which the Spanish admiral Blas de Lezo repelled the British fleet and army of Admiral Edward Vernon. The engineer Antonio de Arévalo extended the defences from 1763.
The design relies on walls that are broad at the base and narrow at the parapet, with batteries placed so that each covers the others — Santa Bárbara, San Carlos, the Apostles, the Hornwork, La Cruz, La Redención and San Lázaro, carrying 68 guns in all, every one facing away from the city. Beneath them runs a maze of tunnels. The main gallery follows the perimeter at sea level, and chambers along it were made so they could be blown up beneath attackers advancing overhead. Cisterns and channels collected rainwater for a siege. The summit stands about 41 metres above sea level.
Cartagena de Indias, founded in 1533, was one of Spain's key Caribbean ports, a hub for shipping silver to Spain and for the slave trade, which is why it needed such defences. In 1984 UNESCO inscribed the port, fortresses and monuments of Cartagena, including San Felipe, as a World Heritage Site.
Getting there
The castle stands on San Lázaro hill within the city of Cartagena, close to the historic centre. The nearest airport is Rafael Núñez International Airport (CTG), about 3.5 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is a fortress in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. The castle was built in 1639, and is located on the Hill of San Lázaro in a strategic location, dominating approaches to the city by land or sea. It was originally known as the Castillo de San Lázaro. It was built by African slave labor under Spanish supervision during the colonial era. The fortress was involved in several battles between the late 17th to early 19th centuries between European powers.
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