Castro fortress

The Fortress of El Castro[1] is a hilltop fortress in Vigo, (province of Pontevedra), Spain built in 1665 during the Portuguese Restoration War in order to protect the city from the continuous raids by the British Royal Navy, allies of Portugal.

Fortress of El Castro
Fortaleza do Castro Fortaleza del Castro
Vigo, Galicia in Spain
One of the walls of Fortress
Castro Fortress Location in Spain
Coordinates	42°13′55.90″N 8°43′38.78″W
Type	Fortification
Site information
Owner	Concello de Vigo
Open to the public	Yes
Site history
Built	1665
Built by	Engineer Colonel Fernando de Gourannanbergue
Battles/wars	Battle of Vigo Bay, Peninsular War

Built on the hill of the same name, the defensive system of the city consisted of the fortresses of O Castro and San Sebastián and the now disappeared city wall. The city wall had an irregular shape due to the orography of the city, it was constructed by the Engineer Colonel Fernando de Gourannanbergue and maestre de campo Diego Arias Taboada to link the two fortresses. Despite this effort to provide security to the city, documents from that time say that this defensive system was ineffective as it could not impede landings further along the coast.

After several attempts to improve the defenses of the city, Vigo was looted again by British navy on the 23–24 October 1702 during Battle of Vigo Bay at the War of the Spanish Succession. The fortress and Vigo fell once more to a British force during the War of the Quadruple Alliance in October 1719.

In 1809, the fortress was occupied by the French army during Peninsular War; on 28 March that year the fortress was reconquered following an uprising by people of Vigo, because of the city was given the honorific title of "the faithful, loyal and courageous city of Vigo" the following year.

Nowadays the fortress is one of the preferred sites for people to take a walk in Vigo, because his beautiful gardens, open spaces, fonts and also the privileged views.