Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

February 5, 2016

I spent an afternoon at the Castillo San Felipe, which overlooks the harbor and city.  Built in 1536 and expanded in 1657, it was both a castle and a fort, and instrumental in defending the city from attacks since it covered both land and sea entrances.  Though its been a while since they've used it, its still formidable looking.

I first found some of the many tunnels that connect parts of the castle. There were some short halls that lead right back to an exit, but I found one that slanted down and went into darkness. I unfortunately didn't have a light, otherwise you know I would have been finding the end of the path. I tried to feel my way in the dark, and quickly soaked my shoe in a puddle, then decided it wasn't worth it.

This tunnel actually goes down at a rather steep angle, but the photo doesn't show it all that well.  Imagination time!

Other parts of the castle looked out over the city.

It was windy.  My hair doesn't always do that. Promise.

And there were still cannons hanging around.

Just chilling on a cannon at an ancient castle.  No big.

All the walls had crenelations where cannons would have been. The walls were built at angles to provide the best coverage of cannon fire.

I overheard a tour guide telling his group about these tunnels, and how it only took three steps down before someone in the tunnel could tell if it was a friend or enemy descending.  The soldiers had different colored pants, so blue pants you didn't shoot, and brown pants you did.

I thought it was an interesting mix of history, looking at skyscrapered downtown from a historic fort.

I stuck around until sunset especially for the view.

When you take a panorama straight at the sun, wierd things happen, but you get the idea of what the view was like

This is what it looked like through my sunglasses, the colors tended more towards the pink side

And I loved this view of one of the cathedrals.

Theyre in the little window in case you were having trouble

Driving past a couple days later, the castle looks impressive after the sun goes down too.