Archtectural Features
Fortaleza de Jagua is
buit on a hill at the entrance of the bay of Cienfuegos, in
the little village of Jagua. Its full name is Fortaleza Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles de Jagua (Fortress of
Our Lady of the Angels of Jagua).
Fortaleza de Nuestra
Señora de los Ángeles de Jagua is the only Spanish military
fortress, built at the end of the 18th century in the
Renaissance style. The vaulted naves, the moat that
surrounds the fortress and the stepped esplanade on the
entrance leading to a drawbridge are architectural
characteristics of the European castles from the Middle
Ages. On the other hand, the geometric plan of the fortress
and its excellent adaptation to the land surface put it in
the category of American fortresses, albeit slightly.
The fortress is built in solid
limestone. The ashlars that had a thickness of more than
1.10 meter, were extracted Pasacaballo quarries that were on
the opposite shore.
The drawbridge which
is in perfect condition rests on pillars and surrounds the
main entrance. The moat was never filled with water. The
entrance door has a rectangular shape, crowned by a vaulted
arch.
The fortress mainly consists of two
floors. Both floors are accessed via a spiral
staircase.
On the main square, there are two
cylindrical sentry boxes that were functioning as
watchtowers with their loopholes directed towards the bay,
and a cistern with a capacity of 100 m3 of water.
The water
distribution network of the castle is rather interesting.
Rainwater entering from the top floor empties into the
cistern by running inside the walls. The cistern has also
spillways to the moats.
The cylindrical tower with the
dome-shaped roof is the highest point of the fortress.
The bell of the belfry that according
to the rumor, was given to Doña Leonor, the wife of the
first commander of the fortress, Don José Castilla Cabeza de
Vaca by the captain of the ship San Antonio, known as El
Arrogante, to Doña Leonor in 1762, is in a good state.
While visiting the exhibition rooms,
you can get a lot of information about the period when the
pirates were very influential in the Caribbean, and you can
find some details about the life of the pirates. In the
exhibition rooms, visual information about all the
construction phases of the fortress is also given.
The projectsiles and artillery pieces
from the Turbia factory in Spain, as well as firearms and
other weapons used during the 18th and 19th centuries by the
military corps are among the noteworthy pieces of the
museum. On the other hand, fragments of Spanish pottery,
majolica (Italian style earthenware covered with an opaque
tin glaze and decorated on the glaze before firing), and
simple tools used in catching fish are also exhibited.
The commander's office is decorated
with a Spanish Renaissance-style desk set, a table with a
marble rug, a panoply for bladed weapons and a carved wooden
chest.
The chapel of Our Lady of the Angels
of Jagua is furnished with rustic benches and wooden tables,
religious objects such as a missal, prayer book, crucifixes,
and chandeliers. The mural decoration on one of its walls is
considered to be the oldest found in Cienfuegos to date.
In the old torture cell, where inmates
were subjected to physical torture known as "drop of water",
shackles, handcuffs and chains are exhibited.
A large part of the collections
exhibited in the fortress come from the findings of the
archaeological expeditions led by Alfredo Ranquin in the
ditches of the building.
The subsoil of the moats, the chapel
and some elements of the building underwent some
transformation during the restoration work carried out in
the fortress between 1922 and 1923.
