City Wall, Old San Juan /Dean
San Juan: Viejo San Juan January-2008, By:Travel and Sports Staff
Old San Juan - A Classic Fortress City
It’s been almost five centuries since the first stone was set in place that would fix Old San Juan into the pages of history. Designated as a World Heritage Site in 1983, Old San Juan has joined the ranks of other great cultural achievements such as the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China and Peru’s Machu Picchu.
Old San Juan, sitting on an island in the Bay of San Juan, is a classic fortress city, which Spanish architects modeled after the fortress cities of Europe (such as Cadíz, Spain). This European model called for a city enclosed by massive walls, accessed by a few well-controlled gates, and reinforced with defensive fortifications or castles at strategic points. This system proved to be an effective defense against attacks by pirates and other European powers.
The development of the city occurred in 4 stages, all of which may be seen today.
Stage 1: The birth of a city and the strategic plan (16th century)
The City of San Juan Bautista started under Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León with 300 settlers who moved here in June 1519 by the order of Carlos V, King of Spain to escape the swamps of Caparra - Puerto Rico’s first government settlement. The settlers found this to be a far better location from which they could defend the Island. The first settlement encompassed the area from the San Juan Gate, the San Juan Cathedral to the Iglesia San José.
Once the city was formally founded in 1521, it quickly evolved into one of the most strategic outposts of the New World. So important was San Juan to the Spanish Crown that the city underwent hundreds of years of fortification aimed at protecting the city from invasion. The first defensive building was Casa Blanca (completed in 1530), which was built as a protective refuge for the first Spanish governor, Ponce de León. During this same time the Spaniards began erecting the massive walls along the west side of the city.
The Spaniards, realizing they needed to build a more extensive fortification than Casa Blanca, began in 1533 to construct a stone fortress: La Fortaleza, (or,” the stronghold” - now the governor’s mansion). Like Casa Blanca, this fortress was not set up with permanent troops or cannons. Neither Casa Blanca nor La Fortaleza were designed or sited as military strongholds to project the power required to protect the entrance to the Bay of San Juan. Before the construction of La Fortaleza was completed the decision was made to construct a fort on the headlands at the harbor entrance on a 100-foot slope for just that purpose: guarding the entrance to the Bay of San Juan. The basic strategic plan for the long-term development of the city was now in place.
Stage 2: Development of the harbor defense (17th century)
The fort constructed at the headlands at the harbor entrance is the Fuerte San Felipe del Morro, known to one and all as EL Morro. El Morro, a massive fortification started in 1540 and finished 250 years later. Over the years, El Morro’s six levels of cannon and bomb-proof vaults rising 140 feet from the sea served its main mission well by preventing many an enemy from penetrating the harbor.
The next step in the evolution of the fortress city was the construction of a small fort called San Juan de la Cruz, better known today as El Cañuelo. Located directly across the bay to the west of El Morro, its cannons helped El Morro setup a field of fire covering the entire entrance to the bay. As part of this fortification effort King Philip IV ordered in 1631 the complete enclosing of the city. From 1634 to 1638 a line of massive walls rose up to defend the western and southern coast of the city, known as “la frente maritima” and the eastern access known as “frente defensive de tierra”. This was the beginning of the “Murallas del la Ciudad” or the City Walls, that eventually wrapped around the entirety of Old San Juan.
Stage 3: Completion of the fortress city (18th century)
Following several damaging attacks by invaders, during which portions of the city were destroyed by fire, Spain decided to add a final major fortification and completely enclose the city. That final fortification would be the largest fortress built by the Spanish in the Americas: The Fuerte de San Cristóbal (started in 1634 and finished in 1730).
Originally, the cities defense on the north side consisted of a fortin, La Perla, and rocky cliffs. However, in the mid-18th century more walls and bastions facing the sea were added. By 1792 the city was completely enclosed with more than three miles of continuous walls, only accessible through five doors. The wall’s height varies from 20 to 100 feet and its width is up to 25 ft. Following European tradition, portions of the wall were named after religious figures, hoping that the defense system would be protected by the patron saint.
Stage 4: San Juan of today (19th century – today)
In the early 19th century, the city that started with 300 settlers in 1519 needed to grow outside of the original City Walls. After nearly 40 years of debate with the military authorities the civil leaders destroyed the east wall and a section of the south wall in 1897 to allow for expansion to the east and into the dock area. A year later the city fell to the U.S. Army in the Spanish-American war.
From the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898 until 1961 the fortifications of Old San Juan were the responsibility of the U.S. Army. Subsequently, UNESCO declared that “the loss of these monuments would be irreparable due to their important cultural contribution as well as the legacy which they represent to present and future generations.” Today, the U.S. National Parks Service (NPS), which is tasked with the protection of the historic fortifications of Old San Juan, takes its mandate to preserve and protect this treasure very seriously.
As part of its preservation and restoration efforts, the NPS has set up a specially designed laboratory where original material samples are analyzed and replacement mate-rials are replicated to match the brick, stone, sand and limestone used by the Spaniards. The NPS is working to protect one of the best-preserved fortification systems in the world.
When you think of the commitment of time and treasure required to develop and preserve Old San Juan, you can see why it is recognized today as one of the world’s classic fortress cities.
We wish to thank the NPS for their assistance in the preparation of this article.
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