Fort of Buenos Aires

The Fort of Buenos Aires was a fortress destined to defend Buenos Aires and to be the seat of the Spanish colonial authorities in the city. Its construction began in 1595 and after several refurbishments it was finished only at the beginning of the 18th century, being demolished in 1882. It received the name of Real Fortaleza de Don Juan Baltasar de Austria (Royal Fortress of Don Juan Baltasar of Austria), and in the 17th century it was called Castillo de San Miguel Arcángel del Buen Ayre.

It was located on the banks of the Río de la Plata, which at that time was less than a hundred meters from the Plaza de Mayo. It occupied the same site that today occupies the Casa Rosada, seat of the executive power of the Argentine Republic. It had a stone wall, with a moat surrounding it, a drawbridge over the square, with bastions in its corners with cannons and interior buildings. Acarette du Biscay, a French traveler, described it thus in 1658:

...[the city] has a small earthen fort overlooking the river encircled by a moat and mounts ten iron cannons being the largest caliber of twelve. The governor resides there and the garrison is composed of only 150 men in three companies, commanded by three captains appointed by the governor at his pleasure..."

Text adapted from “Fuerte de Buenos Aires” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort of Buenos Aires ranks #4,109 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #4 of the 6 mapped in Argentina. Founded 1595, it is older than 34% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,599 times in the last 60 days, more than 61% of the atlas. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Argentina compares in the castle statistics.

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