The Castillo San Felipe de Barajas is a fortress in the city of Cartagena, Colombia. It is located on the Hill of San Lazaro in a strategic location, dominating approaches to the city by land or sea.
The name of the fortress was given in honor of Philip IV of Spain.
![The castle was built by the Spanish during the colonial era. Photo Credit](https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2016/11/The-castle-was-built-by-the-Spanish-during-the-colonial-era.-Photo-Credit-640x512.jpg)
Construction of the fortress begun in 1657. It was built in a triangular shape on top of the hill, with eight batteries and a garrison of 20 soldiers and four gunners.
![The castle was originally known as the Castillo de San Lazaro. Photo Credit](https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2016/11/The-castle-was-originally-known-as-the-Castillo-de-San-Lazaro.-Photo-Credit-640x428.jpg)
During the War of the Grand Alliance in the 1697 raid on Cartagena, the fortress fell to the French privateer Baron de Pointis.
![The fort was designed in a French military style. Photo Credit](https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2016/11/The-fort-was-designed-in-a-French-military-style.-Photo-Credit-640x419.jpg)
The castle defended Cartagena from numerous pirates attempting to seize some of the New World treasures destined to Spain. The fortress consists of a series of walls, wide at the base and narrow toward the parapet, forming a formidable pattern of bunkers.
The parapets and batteries protect one another so it is impossible to take a battery without taking the whole defense system.
![The castle played a critical role in repelling Lord Vernon in the most famous raid made on the city in 1741.Photo Credit](https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2016/11/The-castle-played-a-critical-role-in-repelling-Lord-Vernon-in-the-most-famous-raid-made-on-the-city-in-1741.Photo-Credit..-640x424.jpg)
In the 1741 Battle of Cartagena de Indias, the English Admiral Edward Vernon attacked the fortress.
He attacked with a force of 23,000 men and 186 boats but the guns of his boats could just reach the outside walls of the defense.
![The castle looks like a mountain of stone. Photo Credit](https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2016/11/The-castle-looks-like-a-mountain-of-stone.-Photo-Credit-640x425.jpg)
Another expansion was made to the fortress in 1762 by Antonio de Arévalo and the entire hill of San Lazaro was covered over with this enormous bastion.
![It is one of the finest examples of spanish military engineering in the New World. Photo Credit](https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2016/11/It-is-one-of-the-finest-examples-of-spanish-military-engineering-in-the-New-World.-Photo-Credit-640x418.jpg)
There is a complex system of tunnels that connected strategic points of the fortress to distribute provisions and evacuate the inmates.
It is the most formidable defensive complex of Spanish military architecture.
![In 1984, UNESCO listed the castle, with the historic centre of the city of Cartagena, as a World Heritage Site. Photo Credit.,](https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/65/2016/11/In-1984-UNESCO-listed-the-castle-with-the-historic-centre-of-the-city-of-Cartagena-as-a-World-Heritage-Site.-Photo-Credit.-640x424.jpg)
The San Felipe de Barajas Castle, along with the old city of Cartagena, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.