CubaPLUS Magazine

Known simply as Castillo de Atarés, it is one of the military fortresses that integrated the defensive system of colonial Havana at a time when the island, thanks to its cosmopolitan port, settled in the destination of Llave de Las Americas, as the main headquarters of the Spanish fleet and Antemural of the Indies, as an active continental crossroads.

It has had various functions since its inauguration on 1767, as part of the defensive fortresses in the first instance, but then it was also the headquarters of the presidential guard at the beginning of the 20th century, prison and military unit. On November 14, 2019, about to celebrate the half a millennium of the great city of Havana, was reopened for public exhibition after a complete general restoration. After the inauguration of the grandiose fortress of San Carlos de la Cabaña, built at the end of the English occupation that began in 1762 and lasting one year, the Spanish metropolis reinforced the city's defenses with the construction of two other smaller stone entities and one of these became our Atarés Castle.

With the pastoral name of Castillo de Santo Domingo de Atarés, above all it honors the then governor of the Island, the Count of Ricla, whose main nickname was that Sunday. The works were under the technical command of engineer Silvestre Abarca, supported by the Belgian engineer Agustín Crame. That level of deterrent power this time had an effect on the vandals and marauders in the area, since he never had to go into combat.

Sad events, however, are linked to its history during the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado, the president who ordered his opponents to be murdered there and then throw their bodies into the bay. With a symmetry similar to that of an irregular hexagon, it has no bastions and exhibits sentry boxes of similar shape. A small central parade ground is admired, surrounded by several buildings, six bomb proof vaults then, soldiers' accommodation, as well as spaces intended for storing provisions and armor supplies, among others. Today the unique Atarés Castle, after the end of the Havana Malecón so famous and part of the capital's seascape, it is not only a beautiful sight or a witness to distant history.

It is a kind of Museum that invites you to discover beautiful legends of Havana and valuable information about engineering art of the Renaissance genius Leonardo da Vinci, regarding his contributions to military engineering, of which Santo Domingo de Atarés is a part. A very interesting cultural adventure awaits anyone who crosses its threshold.