CASTILLO DEL PRÍNCIPE

The Castillo owes its name to Prince Charles, son of Charles III of Spain. It was built on the hill called Aróstegui between 1767 and 1779 under the direction of the engineers Silvestre Abarca and Agustín Cramer, and later under the architect Luis Huet. It has the shape of an irregular pentagon, with ramparts, bastions, buttresses, a moat, galleries with loopholes, as well as water and powder tanks. At one time it was the Presidio nacional (National Prison), and later the Cárcel de La Habana (Havana Prison).