CubaPLUS Magazine

Although now it is seen almost as a work of art, yes, with a lot of history, the Fortress of Our Lady of the Angels of Jagua, located at the entrance to the bay of Cienfuegos, city of  the center of Cuba, has the charm of stone perpetuated to give beauty and majesty to the landscape.

It was a military installation completed in 1745 by the Spanish crown, in order to defend the southern central coast from attacks by corsairs and pirates, first and then also stopping the unstoppable smuggling trade that supported many inhabitants with filibustering sailors, a very lucrative practice at the time.

Along those shores facing the Caribbean Sea, whose waters were infested with pirates since the 16th and 17th centuries, the town of Cienfuegos had not yet been founded, created on the shores of Jagua Bay at the beginning of the 19th century by French settlers.

Summing up as much as possible, we will say that although there was no important military enclave of the metropolis, it was an area populated by landowners dedicated to illegal businesses in livestock and  The situation cried out to organize defense, security and control by the colonial authorities to stop something that was being done shaping up to be economic loss and debauchery, and even something more, as indeed happened later.

Built with the architectural style of geometric Renaissance style, that architects already gave to European military fortresses, it still has traces of the Middle Ages in the forms of vaulted naves and the classic moat that isolated it. According to historical data, it was very useful in the defense of the entire southern coast of the archipelago, along with the fortress of San Pedro de la Roca, from the bay of Santiago de Cuba, at the eastern end.

Furthermore, it is said that he arrived very much in time to make an important contribution in the attacks on the English navy when it seized Havana and governed the destinies of the colony from 1762, for space of one year.

Today Cuban authorities have given the condition of National Monument to that historic site, since October 10, 1978, while it was inaugurated as a Museum on March 24, 1998. Among the myths and legends that adorn and make the area attractive are that since the 16th century, names of famous pirates such as Jacques de Sores, Francis Drake, John Morgan, Jean the Bold and Gilberto Girón, each one at their time, are linked to audacious looting raids in those lonely places, when they were defenseless and with the strength created. But much later, in the 19th century, it was also used as a prison for the patriots who rose up against the colonialist power during the libertarian wars.

In its structure, the stepped platform at the entrance stands out. It leads to a drawbridge supported by pillars. This gives access to the main entrance, conditioning communication with the interior. Ashlars from the Pasacaballo quarries, located in the region, with a thickness of more than 1.10 m wide, gave solidity and majesty to this work, a symbol of a transcendent time in the Cuban history.