Fort San Carlos, Campeche

The Baluarte de San Carlos is located in the city of San Francisco de Campeche, Campeche, Mexico. It has its beginnings in the 17th century; this bastion was dedicated to King Charles II of Spain, and in the year 1676 it was inaugurated by the governor Pedro Fernández de Angulo. It has a pentagonal form, its area is 840 metres, and today it is the only one reached by way of a modified ramp that leads from the street to the first level; its sturdy doors were made of wood, and they invite one to tour the building. This bastion has a cistern and, in the lower part, the basement, where there is a vault known as "El Pulguero", which served to confine prisoners; from it countless stories of tunnels and secret passages have arisen.

The second level has a terrace holding two powerful cannons and a bell tower in one of its corners; it currently houses the Museum of the City.

In times past this architecture was used as a guard post. Today it holds the city's title, granted on 1 October 1777 by King Charles III of Spain, and also the keys to the city, as well as a splendid museum display describing the evolution of the city through the centuries.

The bastion has inside it furniture, weapons, sculptures and replicas of plans and parts of its history; in one room is the sculpture of the india mosquito, and from the upper part one can see "La Puerta de Mar" and "El Baluarte de la Soledad".

Machine-translated from “Baluarte de San Carlos” on the Spanish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort San Carlos, Campeche ranks #7,911 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #10 of the 11 mapped in Mexico. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Mexico compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia (in Spanish) ↗