Fort “San Juan De La Cruz”

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El Cañue­lo. Click on image to see it larger.

Fort San Juan de la Cruz, bet­ter known among the locals as “El Cañue­lo” got it’s nick­name because it was built on a tiny islet called Cañue­lo Island  (la isla del cañue­lo). This tiny square fort, built in the 1630’s, had only one mis­sion: har­bor defense. Ships attempt­ing to enter San Juan Bay would be caught in a mer­ci­less cross­fire between El Cañue­lo and the larg­er Fort San Felipe del Mor­ro at the oth­er side of the bay entrance.

Today El Cañue­lo is part of the San Juan Nation­al His­toric Site and is list­ed as a UNESCO World Her­itage Site.  While it is closed to the pub­lic, it offers a stun­ning view of the Old San Juan sky­line and Fort San Felipe del Mor­ro’s mas­sive structure.

El Cañue­lo is the only Span­ish mil­i­tary struc­ture built out­side of the San Juan islet. In fact, it is actu­al­ly in a dif­fer­ent town alto­geth­er. El Cañue­lo is locat­ed in the town of Cataño, in a small area called “Isla de Cabras” (Goat Island) which is most­ly a pub­lic beach area near Palo Seco ward.

The Palo Seco Ward is famous among islanders for its fish and seafood restau­rants. Oh, and if you’re not sure how to pro­nounce the “ñ” in “Cañue­lo” hit the red play­er below the headline.

Orlando Mergal buys all his photo equipment at B&H

Dis­clo­sure of Mate­r­i­al Con­nec­tion: Some of the links in this post are “affil­i­ate links.” This means that if you click on a link and pur­chase an item, I will receive an affil­i­ate com­mis­sion. Regard­less, I only rec­om­mend prod­ucts or ser­vices that I use per­son­al­ly and believe will add val­ue to my read­ers. I am dis­clos­ing this in accor­dance with the Fed­er­al Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Con­cern­ing the Use of Endorse­ments and Tes­ti­mo­ni­als in Advertising.”

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