CASTILLO DE LOS TRES REYES DEL MORRO

The Castillo owes its name to a altarpiece of the adoration of the three kings who were once in his chapel (since disappeared), as well as to his situation on a hill (el morro), on a rocky reef giving directly to the sea. The castle of the Morro became one of Havana's symbols, due to its architecture and the presence of the lighthouse just at the entrance to the bay. It is the most powerful defensive complex that Spaniards have built in America. Since Havana was not slow to become the rallying port of the galleons loaded with gold and money from the New World, it needed to defend attacks on the privateers, pirates and other écumeurs of the seas, but also enemy nations of Spain (England in particular). The protection provided by the Castillo de la Real Fuerza (Royal Force Castle) was found to be insufficient, with Philippe II giving the city another defensive work, entrusted to the Italian architect Juan Bautista Antonelli. The fortress of the Morro, supposedly a replica of a fortress of Lisbon, began in 1589 and completed in 1630. Very damaged during the conquest of the city by the English in 1762, it was rebuilt in 1763. From 1764, his tower served as a lighthouse. It was at that time that the Morro was assisted in his defence mission on the east shore of the bay by a new nearby fortress (La Cabaña), whose first stone was laid in 1763.