The entrance is built at the top of an incline.
Fort at San Juan (Part 1)
| San Juan has
several forts. "El Morro".
The word itself sounds powerful and this six-level
fortress certainly is. Begun in 1540 and completed
in 1589, most of the walls in the fort today were added
later, in a period of tremendous construction from the
1760's-1780's. Rising 140 feet above the sea,
its 18-foot-thick wall proved a formidable
defense. The entrance is built at the top of an incline. |
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The interior also had inclined ramps to the tops of the walls. The size of the cannons placed on the walls surely had something to do with that design. |
| At the side of the fort, about halfway down the length, there was a heavy wooden door. Notice the ornate brickwork which used to have a small window in it. That has been filled with cement. Through that doorway there is access to the tops of battlements which are also part of the fort. | |