Castillo San Felipe - Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 28° 24.860 W 016° 33.501
28R E 347358 N 3144090
This fort near to the mouth of the river San Felipe was built to defend Puert de la Cruz against pirates and was completed in 1604
Waymark Code: WMQR6W
Location: Islas Canarias, Spain
Date Posted: 03/22/2016
Views: 16
"San Felipe Castle stands out among all erected in his time in the Canary Islands for being a refined style colonial. Built of masonry, it has a perimeter pentagonal and although initially it was surrounded by a moat and had a drawbridge, was later replaced by a fixed walkway. Originally it had two floors, enabled the latter to accommodate about 35 soldiers around. It was equipped with three guns iron, two 24 pounds and another 16. The appearance that looks today the castle responds to the reform in the nineteenth century.
It was one of four forts that were used to defend Puerto de la Cruz. It was built round an open platform with guns that originally defended an attack of 5 pirate ships. Construction started in 1599 and was completed in 1604.
In the nineteenth century it was renovated over time because it had deteriorated. In 1878, it was demilitarised and was handed over to the municipality in order to convert it to use as an isolation hospital. Finally, in 1924, it declared inadequate for the needs of the Army and was closed.
For a time it was used as a restaurant and finally converted to a free municipal museum."
details extracted from this link
It has a fine carving of King Philip of Spain's coat of arms above the entrance to the fort.
Its Código reference is (R.I.) - 51 - 0008254 - 00000