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La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site
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How it came to be
At the mouth of San Juan Bay in Puerto Rico stand forts that Spain built between the 16th and 20th centuries. The first, La Fortaleza, went up between 1533 and 1540. It has been a fortress, an arsenal, a prison and the governor-general's home, and it is still the residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico.
In 1539 King Charles I ordered work on Castillo San Felipe del Morro at the headland guarding the bay, and in 1587 the Italian engineer Bautista Antonelli and others drew its final design. The fort drove off Francis Drake's fleet in 1595, but in 1598 the Earl of Cumberland, George Clifford, took it by attacking from the land side. It held against the Dutch in 1625 and the British in 1797.
On 12 May 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the US Navy shelled El Morro, and the Treaty of Paris that year made Puerto Rico a US territory. The forts stayed in defensive use until the mid-20th century. San Juan National Historic Site was established in 1949, and the property was inscribed in 1983.
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