Castillo de San Cristóbal is not as well known or visited as El Morro, it's more like El Morro's little brother, the one that get's overlooked in favour of the impressive, over-achieving first born. But the truth is, while El Morro is about 200 years older, has seen more battles, and sits out on a prominatory for all to see, San Cristóbal is the larger, more sophisticated fort. In fact, it is the largest fortification built by the Spanish in the New World. This fact is not so evident these days, however, the fort having been condensed and somewhat buried by the cities bulging girth, but back in the day, these two forts connected by the mighty city wall became a partnership in the fight against invasion, and San Cristóbal, the new shining crown on Spain's glory, was going to put an end to them once and for all.
San Cristóbal was not far from where we were staying in San Juan; it was probably only a five minute walk till we were smack-bang at its hefty 150 feet walls. It was another nice sunny day as we took the huge stone-built ramp high up to the entrance gates on the west side of the fort, the entrance that would have been within the city walls.
We were made to detour through the old Guardhouse to show our tickets before entering into the central plaza. This one is much larger than the one at El Morro; a huge open space that looks extremely bare these days, but you could just imagine during it's occupancy it would be packed with rows of soldiers practising drills and getting their orders.
San Cristóbal was a much larger structure than we see today. Construction began with a small triangular bastion in 1634, on the hill known as San Cristobal (St Cristopher, hence the name of the fort) facing the sea. But during the period between 1765-1783 the fort was re-engineered and it became the backbone of a larger defense system. A layer of defense walls surrounded the central core, these "outworks" could function independently from one another in case one was comprised they could not take the lot. An extensive tunnel system connected the six various sections of the fort. The strategy was called "defense-in-depth" and was praised as a military engineering marvel of its time. As you can see in the picture above the fort was incorporated into the eastern city wall which also contained the Eastern Gate entrance, the only entrance from this side. Of course, the eastern wall has totally disappeared now, as has much of this outer defense system.
Surrounding the plaza are the officer's barracks and troop barricks, the kitchen, the chapel, and a number of casemates. The officer's barracks are directly opposite the troops, and were strategically located not just for a view to the city and a nice breeze from the prevailing tradewinds, but also access to water. Just outside the barracks are these big cylindrical stone repositories; these are the water wells leading to large underground cisterns. There was no readily available water supply in San Juan and the troops needed to have a large water supply during times of seige, so this system was incorporated into the fort. The floors and roofs were designed on a slope to catch rainfall and lead to drainage ducts which flow to the cisterns.
This fort is set up better to inform visitors about life in the fort during the 18th century. In the officer's barracks you can see the typical uniforms worn by the officers and gentry while in the troops barracks you can see the contrast with the soldier's uniforms. A room inside the troops quarters also contains a fully restored replica of the their sleeping quarters complete with cots, dining table, water barrels, muskets and uniforms hanging on hooks above each bed. Other rooms contained more exhibitions like at El Morro and I also watched a video on how to light and fire a cannon. This seemed a long and tedious process from what I saw, carried largely by ceremony, that I stopped watching. Surely when the enemy's at your doorstep you blow ceremony to the wind and get that thing lit and flying out of there quick-sticks!
The fort has the same basic features as El Morro, with cannon openings, artillery ramps and garitas, but spread out on a much larger scale. We went up to the main battery where we found more garitas and a pyramid of real mortar shells - which I thought were cannon balls but turns out these are different (mortar shells are hollow and can be filled with gunpowder, that's why they explode), they were excavated from the grounds around the fort. From here we could spy on puerta del tierra on the eastern side of the fort, where along a grassy field, or dry moat, we could see some of the existing "out works" and beyond that, the Capitol Building. Then we went up to the very top for the best views of the city, full 360 degree views. If you're not into forts at all it's worth coming just for the view.
There were so many ways to get around, all sorts of short cuts leading up, down and around. You could really sense the intricacy of this place and it's well thought out plan. And that was only a small portion of it, there were also the tunnels and dungeons underneath that weren't open to the public.
In fact, the fort was not even put to test until 1797 when the British tried again, unsuccessfully I might add, to take the city. The English Commander, Sir Ralph Abercromby, in an attempt to explain this disaster, later reported that the invaders had been found to be a well prepared enemy, with a stronger than expected garrison, protected by a solid wall and powerful weapons.
The other prominent feature is the obtrusive WWII Observation posts that leer unmistakenable over the fort, totally devoid of charm. These concrete structures were added by the US in 1941 to spot enemy warships and to direct the firing of coastal defense guns. An underground bunker control centre was also added. You could go inside these posts which were pretty stark and the only light was from an eye-level slit running from side to side. Great views though.
In its last test of strength, the forts stood as a protector of San Juan during the Spanish-American war in 1898. But after only a few hours, it was evident that the old walls and weathered cannons were no match for the modern US weapon technology. Thus, as history has told, the glory days of the forts are over. In 1961 the US army moved out of the forts once and for all and they became the jurisdiction of the United States National Park Service, to be preserved solely as museums.
One more thing, San Cristobal also has a new, modern-era claim to fame: it was used in the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides. Wish I had been there for that!
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