Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro

Like the Capitolio and the Giraldilla, the Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro, popularly known as El Morro, is one the symbols of Havana, as well as one of the most visited places by both the tourists and the locals. It has been photographed million times and painted by many and has also appeared in several movies.

The resilient structure that withstood multiple hurricanes, has a strategic location on one side of the mouth of the harbor. For four centuries it served as part of the main defense line of Havana, composed of four fortresses, including the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta, the Castillo de San Carlos de la Cabaña and Castillo de la Real Fuerza.

Along with the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta and the Castillo de la Real Fuerza, it is one of the three fortresses that appears on the coat of arms of Havana.

HISTORY

At the beginning of the 16th century, the topographic advantage of the port of the town of San Cristóbal de La Habana due its location at the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico and at the entrance of the Florida canal, provided it to become a preferred harbourage for the ships that came along the trade route between Spain and its territories in the Americas. However, the town of San Cristóbal de la Habana had not any defense system at that time. Consequently, the town was plundered and set on fire by French corsairs in 1537 and 1538. The attacks of the pirates led the Crown to order the Governor and the Captain General Hernando de Soto by a Royal Decree to build a fort in the town, so that the first fort of Havana, known as Fuerza Vieja (Old Force), was built in 1538. It was the date when the height of the hill where the Morro castle stands today, began to be assessed as a site for the defense of the town, but the technical and financial conditions were insufficient to build a fort of such magnitude on the hill. Instead of it, the city council took some measures to defeat the nonstop attacks of the pirates, endangering the port and the town.

The city council forbade the cutting of the firetree (delonix regia) in the forests surrounding the city to avoid of creating any even terrain that would facilitate the invasion of the pirates, as any attack from the Chorrera region (the area in Vedado, next to the Almendares river) appeared more likely in comparison to the bay due to the existing fortress. In 1550, the swamps that were present around the entrances of the city, were drained to be able to control the area and the road between the Fuerza Vieja and the Chorrera region was fortified by artillery.

In 1543 the attack of the corsair Roberto Baal to the port was repulsed. However, despite the measures of the cabildo, the French pirate Jacques de Sores could capture the primitive fortress of Hernando de Soto without difficulty and carried out great ferocity in the city in 1555. The city council that took lessons from this tragedy, decided to construct a new castle at the place of the former Fuerza Vieja that would be more fortified, and to put a surveillance system into practice by establishing some watchtowers around the town. The first watchtower was built at the entrance of the bay (Bahía de la Habana) that was called as La Punta (the Tip), in 1559. By order of the Spanish King Felipe II in 1556, the second watchtower was built on the nose at the entrance of the bay in the time of the Governor and the Captain General Diego de Mazariegos in 1563. It was the first construction rose on the hill, popularly known as La Vigía (The Lookout).

The intense naval traffic around the port of Havana that was clearing out the riches of Spanish territories in the Americas to Spain, was making the city vulnerable to enemy attacks. This critical state made a peak when the threats of war between Spain and Brittain became more real in 1580s. From the document addressed to the Spanish King and signed by Diego Fernández de Quiñones, the warden and the captain of the Royal Force, in 1582, we know that every night three watchmen were waiting in the watchtower on the hill La Vigía, and one man at day time. It was written also that the soldiers were making sails on the coast of the bay to increase the vigilance of the fortified areas in the town. In 1586, according to the defense plan of Havana, considered the first one, the Cuban coasts from Pinar del Rio to Matanzas were fortified by numerous early warming posts, artilleries, ammunition, and considerable number of soldiers and volunteers that were willing to fight. In 1587 the number of the watchmen in the watchtower on the hill La Vigía was increased considerably, and the squad was reinforced by the addition of an officer.