The Fort of Silence: The Forgotten History of Castillo de San Fernando in Santa Marta Bay

A Castle Few Know in Santa Marta Bay

If you walk through the historic center of Santa Marta and look out to sea, you will probably only see the blue of the Caribbean and the hill of Punta de Betín. But if you know where to focus your gaze, in the distance, almost hidden among the vegetation of Isla de La Aguja, a mass of stone rises up that has silently witnessed centuries of history. It is the Castillo de San Fernando, a fortress that most locals know only by hearsay and that few tourists take the time to visit.

Do not expect to find an immaculate structure like the Castillo de San Felipe in Cartagena. Here, neglect, undergrowth, and saltpeter have taken their toll. But that is precisely what makes this place special: its authenticity. There are no modern ticket booths or rehearsed tourist scripts. There are stones that hold stories of pirates, cannon fire, soldiers sweating yellow fever, and fishermen who, decades later, turned its walls into a home.

This is the story of a castle the city forgot, but that deserves to be remembered.

Origins

To understand why the Castillo de San Fernando exists, we must go back to the 17th century, when Santa Marta was a strategic point on the routes of gold and emeralds leaving the New Kingdom of Granada for Spain. The bay, although beautiful, was a magnet for English, French, and Dutch pirates who saw its calm waters as an opportunity for plunder.

The Spanish Crown, after several attacks that left the city in ruins (such as that of the English pirate John Hawkins in 1568 or the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Ducasse in 1697), understood that the small fort of San Juan de la Cruz, located where the Casa de la Aduana stands today, was not enough. A more robust defense was needed to protect the entrance to the bay from the open sea.

Construction of the Castillo de San Fernando began around 1739, as part of the Bourbon Reforms that sought to modernize the defenses of the Caribbean. Isla de La Aguja was chosen, a spit of land that closes the bay on the western side, right where any enemy ship would have to pass to reach the city. The design followed the bastion fortification model of the time: thick walls of coral stone, bastions at the corners for crossfire, and a battery of cannons aimed at the navigation channel.

The name "San Fernando" honored King Ferdinand VI of Spain, although the locals, with their habit of nicknaming everything, soon simply called it "El Fuerte" (The Fort). During its early years, the garrison consisted of peninsular soldiers and local militiamen, many of them mulattos and zambos forcibly recruited, who lived in miserable conditions amidst the humid heat and mosquitoes.

What few know is that the castle was never fully completed. The original plans included a moat, a drawbridge, and underground warehouses, but lack of funds and colonial bureaucracy left several parts half-finished. Even so, for almost a century it fulfilled its deterrent function: no pirate managed to take Santa Marta through the bay while the fort was operational.

Timeline or Historical Milestones

• 1739 – Start of works: Military engineer Antonio de Arévalo, the same one who worked on the fortifications of Cartagena, draws up the plans for the Castillo de San Fernando. Construction progresses slowly due to a lack of slave labor and materials.
• 1741 – Vernon's attack on Cartagena: Although Santa Marta was not directly attacked, panic led to the acceleration of the fort's works. The first bronze cannons brought from Spain are installed.
• 1760 – First real shots: The castle garrison opens fire on an English ship attempting to approach the bay. The ship retreats without confirmation of damage.
• 1815 – Independence overlooks it: During the Spanish reconquest, the castle is abandoned by patriot troops. The royalists occupy it briefly, but by 1820, with independence consolidated, the fort is left without military use.
• 1850 – Fishermen's refuge: The castle vaults begin to be inhabited by families of fishermen who find protection from the sun and rain within its walls. Stoves, hammocks, and small vegetable gardens are set up among the rusted cannons.
• 1920 – Declared a National Monument: The Colombian government recognizes its historical value, but the declaration is not accompanied by a budget for its conservation. The castle continues to deteriorate.
• 1970 – Archaeological expedition by the Universidad del Magdalena: A group of students and professors carries out the first formal survey of the site. They find 18th-century Spanish coins, pottery fragments, and a wrought-iron cannon that is now in the Museo del Oro Tairona.
• 2005 – Failed restoration project: The Mayor's Office of Santa Marta announces a plan to recover the castle and turn it into a historical theme park. The project remains in preliminary studies due to lack of resources.
• 2023 – New academic interest: Archaeologists from the Universidad Nacional and the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia (ICANH) resume excavations. They find remains of a colonial kitchen and over 40 cannonballs buried on the adjacent beach.

Key Figures or Events

Antonio de Arévalo (1715–1790)

This Spanish military engineer was the brain behind the Castillo de San Fernando. Born in Cádiz, he arrived in the New Kingdom of Granada in 1738 and became the viceroyalty's leading expert on fortifications. In addition to the Santa Marta fort, he worked on the walls of Cartagena, the Castillo de San Luis de Bocachica, and the Fuerte de San José on Isla de Tierra Bomba. De Arévalo had an obsession with symmetry and defensive functionality, but in Santa Marta he faced the reality of the tropics: the coral stone crumbled easily and humidity corroded the gunpowder in the warehouses. In a letter to the viceroy, he wrote: "This castle will be a perpetual witness to our stubbornness in defending what nature has already condemned."

Captain José María Barreiro (1793–1819)

Although better known for his role in the Battle of Boyacá, Barreiro had a brief stint at the Castillo de San Fernando in 1816, when the Spanish used it as a base for counterinsurgency operations. Under his command, the fort was the scene of executions of local patriots captured in the region. The fishermen who inhabit the area today still say that on full moon nights, chains can be heard dragging through the underground passages, supposedly the echo of the prisoners Barreiro locked in the dungeons.

Doña María Luisa del Castillo (1840–1910)

A little-documented but fascinating figure. Doña María Luisa was the last "official" inhabitant of the castle before it passed into the hands of the state. Widow of a fisherman, she lived alone in one of the vaults for over 40 years, surviving by fishing and tending a small chapel she improvised in one of the bastions. The elders of the El Rodadero neighborhood remember that "the crazy woman of the castle" (as they called her) would drive away curious onlookers by throwing stones and claimed to speak with the ghosts of Spanish soldiers. Upon her death in 1910, the government regained control of the site, but oral tradition assures that her spirit still roams the walls.

The 1970 Discovery: The Smuggler's Treasure

During the 1970 archaeological expedition, students from the Universidad del Magdalena found something unexpected: a hoard of silver coins minted at the Casa de la Moneda in Santa Fe de Bogotá between 1756 and 1789, along with lead ingots and a Spanish royal seal. The most accepted theory is that they belonged to a smuggler who hid his merchandise in the castle during a raid by colonial authorities. The coins, about 200 in total, were handed over to the Banco de la República and today form part of the numismatic collection of the Museo de Oro in Bogotá.

Current State

Getting to the Castillo de San Fernando in June 2026 is not an easy task, and that is part of its charm. There are no tourist buses or road signs. The most common way to access it is by boat from the El Rodadero pier or from the Santa Marta Marina. The trip takes about 20 minutes and prices range from 40,000–60,000 COP per person on a shared boat, although a private tour can be negotiated for around 200,000 COP. There is also the option of going by land to Punta de La Aguja and then walking about 30 minutes along a dirt path that borders the cliffs, but the trail is steep and slippery, especially during the rainy season (April to June and October to November).

Once on site, the visitor encounters a structure that nature has reclaimed. The coral stone walls are covered in lichens, cacti, and vines. The original cannons were removed in the 1960s to prevent theft, but ICANH has installed iron replicas in some positions to give an idea of what the fort looked like in its heyday. The vaults, which served as homes for the fishermen, still retain remnants of stoves and graffiti dating from the late 19th century.

In 2025, the Ministry of Culture allocated 1.2 billion pesos for an emergency intervention that includes consolidating the most deteriorated walls and building a small interpretation center. Work began in March 2026 and is expected to be completed by December of the same year. However, the archaeologists in charge warn that the castle needs a much deeper intervention to ensure its long-term conservation.

The most striking thing about the place is not the stones, but the silence. Unlike Cartagena, where the forts are full of street vendors and groups of tourists with selfie sticks, here you only hear the crashing of waves against the reefs and the song of seagulls. It is a place that invites contemplation and imagining what life was like in this outpost of the Spanish Empire, where poorly paid soldiers watched the horizon waiting for enemy sails that never came.

For cultural tourism travelers, the Castillo de San Fernando offers an experience that few destinations in the Colombian Caribbean can match: the possibility of touching history without filters or makeup. There are no uniformed guides or audio guides in five languages. There is a field guard from ICANH who sometimes appears to collect the entrance fee (5,000 COP for nationals, 10,000 COP for foreigners) and who, if he takes a liking to you, will tell you stories that are not in the books.

If you decide to visit, keep in mind that there are no restrooms, shops, or restaurants. Bring water, mosquito repellent, biodegradable sunscreen (to avoid damaging the marine ecosystem), and closed-toe shoes with good grip. The best time to go is early in the morning (between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m.), when the sun is not so harsh and the dawn light tints the ruins a golden hue that makes them look like they are from a pirate movie.

And if you are lucky, you might find a local fisherman who will show you the castle's best-kept secret: an underground tunnel that, according to legend, connects the fort to the Cathedral of Santa Marta, more than 8 kilometers away. Archaeologists say there is no evidence it exists, but locals swear their grandparents used it to smuggle goods during the colonial era. As in any good Santa Marta story, truth and legend blend until they are impossible to separate.

The Castillo de San Fernando is not a destination for everyone. It is for those seeking something more than a photo for Instagram. It is for those who want to understand that this city, before becoming the sun and beach destination we know today, was a strategic point in the defense of the Spanish Empire, a place where men and women fought, lived, and died in the silence of a bay that keeps its secrets under the water and among the stones.