ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES

The thick, sloping walls of the fortress that are 6 meters (20 feet) wide and 10 meters (33 feet) high, are rather impressive. They were made of limestone, brought from the Havana shoreline. The castle is ringed by a moat, filled with water, so that the building can be accessed by a wooden drawbridge. Beside this main entrance at the southeast wall, the castle has also another entrance at its northern wall that can be seen from Malecón, but nowadays it is closed by an iron gate. This second gate was used to gain access directly to the sea, as the castle ran alongside the rocks and the sea that at the time edged up to the base of the castle. Today, Avenida de Puerto that was built later on a landfill, lies between the castle and the sea. As you cross the moat by the drawbridge, you will see the royal coat of arms, carved in stone above the gateway.

The floor of the castle is in the shape of a perfect square with four enormous triangular bastions at each corner, slicing the dark waters of the surrounding moat. With the surrounding moat, the castle resembles the four-leaf clover and thus create a perfect symmetry; a feature that is one of the main characteristics of the Renaissance architecture of the 16th century. Manifestly, this typical four-point ground plan was influenced by those being built in Spain in the medieval ages. On the forecourt of the castle, several historic Spanish cannons are positioned with their original cannon balls. The whole area is enclosed by an iron fence that is similar to the fence around the historical buildings in the Plaza de Armas.