Venezuela · 17th century
San Carlos de Borromeo Fortress (Spanish: Castillo San Carlos de Borromeo) is a colonial fortress in the Bay of Pampatar in the northeast of Isla Margarita, Venezuela.
It was completed in 1684 for protection against the constant threat of pirates. The fortress was ransacked several times before Venezuela gained independence from Spain. Today the castle has been restored and serves as a museum.
Pampatar, or Port Royal Mampatare, was founded in 1536 on the shore of the best protected deep water anchorage on the island.
The city was divided into two parts due to the irregular coastline.
The original castle was built over a period of about 20 years, started in 1622.
It was sited in the heart of the old city, looking out over the Bay of Pampatar.
Its purpose, together with the La Caranta fort on the other side of the bay, was to protect the town from pirates with crossfire.
The fort was destroyed by Dutch pirates in 1662 when they burned Pampatar.
In 1664 Captain Carlos Navarro began the reconstruction of the castle after a design by military engineer Juan Betín.
In 1676 Juan Muñoz Gadea was appointed Governor of Margarita.
When he reached the island in August 1677 he found that it had been devastated earlier in the year by a privateering raid by the French Marquis de Maintenon. Gadea focused all available resources, including some of his own funds, on completing and manning Fort San Carlos. The work was eventually completed in 1684.
In subsequent years the castle was destroyed and rebuilt several times.
La Caranta was destroyed by pirates in 1626. The ruins remain.
During the Venezuelan War of Independence the revolutionary Luisa Cáceres de Arismendi was held in the castle in 1816 while being moved from the Castillo de Santa Rosa in La Asunción to the prison in La Guaira on the mainland. She is considered the heroine of the war of independence, and her remains are now in the National Pantheon of Venezuela.
On 3 November 1816 the Spanish were forced to evacuate Isla Margarita.
After boarding all the soldiers and supplies, they left a lighted fuse leading to a pile of gunpowder that would have destroyed the castle.
A revolutionary soldier noticed the fuse by accident and extinguished it before any damage was done.
The next year the Spanish under General Pablo Morillo returned to the island and made the fort their headquarters during a campaign to regain control.
Text adapted from “San Carlos de Borromeo Fortress” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
San Carlos de Borromeo Fortress ranks #6,706 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #3 of the 4 mapped in Venezuela. Founded 1684, it is older than 23% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 721 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. 1 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Venezuela compares in the castle statistics.
View on the interactive castle map →