Havana Castle Of The Royal Force — Attraction in Catedral

After Havana was raided in 1555 by French buccaneer Jacques de Sores, destroying the original fortress, it was necessary to build a new fort to protect the city from further pirate attacks. Castillo de la Real Fuerza was completed in 1577 to serve this purpose, but soon proved to be ineffective because of its poor position too far inside the bay.

No longer useful for defense, military commanders and governors moved in to make the castle their residence. It also was used as a place to safely store treasures brought from America.

In 1634, the lookout tower was crowned with a bronze weather vane known as La Giraldilla. It soon became a symbol of Havana, even though there is disagreement about what it represents. Theories range from it being a symbol of victory, a representation of Seville, and a likeness of Ines de Bobadilla, the wife of Spanish governor Hernando de Soto.

Today the fortress is a shipwreck museum, displaying jewels, artifacts and a huge model of a naval ship.

While the model ship was impressive, the rest of the museum was rather boring. Everything was labeled in Spanish, so we were unsure of the significance of what we were looking at. Our visit was also tarnished by the staff members who persistently hassled us...

This is a Spanish bastion fortress. A.D 1577. Unfortunately, the architects made a ‘’small’’ mistake. The bastion was built a little bit too far from the water channel. Cannon shots were unable to reach targets on the water channel effectively. Bastion’s destiny was changed. When the decision was changed, the bastion became a barracks, gunpowder and ammunition warehouse, and the fortified seat of the Governor of Havana. Currently is a fantastic museum there. You may see a quite large model of Nuestra Señora de la Santísima Trinidad. It was the largest sailing vessel in the world. A.D 1768. This sailing vessel had 140 gunpowder guns and was really huge for the era of sailing ships!!!

There is a weather vane on the watchtower of this bastion. It’s La Giraldilla. Symbolizes the figure of the only female governor of Havana. Her name was Doña Isabel de Bobadilla. La Giraldilla replica is also at the bastion's museum.

Castillo de Real Fuerza is a place need to see. I was there in...

A beautiful fort that is located very close to port, one of the most affordable museums as well at only 2-3 cuc. The exhibits were nice and there was plenty to see both upstairs and down. Unfortunately the staff took it upon themselves to try and sell us unofficial or knockoff items for their personal gain. That was fine and we bought a couple coins to help them out and kind of get them off our backs. As soon as we bought them another worker took our phone and proceeded to take our photos… throughout many rooms and artifacts. We told them thank you but we were leaving and they proceeded to ask for more money, they then took out their phone w/ photos of their children and grand-children continuing to ask for money. We told them sorry and good-bye and we weren’t really in the mood to explore the...