For nearly 350 years, the San Juan de Ulúa Fort in Veracruz served as the primary military stronghold of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. (...)
For nearly 350 years, the San Juan de Ulúa Fort in Veracruz served as the primary military stronghold of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Located on an island discovered by Juan de Grijalva in 1518 and built and added to between 1535 and 1843, the fort was once considered the most secure and technologically advanced in the New World, serving as both a port of entry for Christian missionaries and a critical piece of the Spanish West Indies coastal defense system.
Significant portions of the complex of structures that make up the fort have survived intact¬, including the towers, dungeons, a governor's palace, parade grounds, and a cemetery. However, most of the complex long suffered from deterioration as a result of its sandy site in a highly polluted and busy harbor. The expansion of the navigational canal, settling and wake turbulence from passing tankers caused severe cracks in its foundations and weakened the structure. Some structures, such as the bulwarks and ramparts that face the navigation channel, were threatened with collapse, and the loss of the protective lime renders accelerated the deterioration of the exposed coral stone walls.
