Parque Histórico El Morro

The Castillo de San Pedro del Morro (tel. 022/69-1569; 9 a.m.–7:30 p.m.; entrance CUC4, cameras/videos CUC1) is an enormous piece of military architecture begun in 1638 and poised ominously atop the cliffs at the narrow entrance to Santiago Bay, about 14 kilometers south of Santiago. The Morro was rebuilt and strengthened in 1664 after the English pirate Henry Morgan reduced it to rubble. It was recently restored using coral chunks and red brick alongside the much-worn original limestone blocks. The effect is not lost, however, and you still gain a full sense of the power of the Morro. Cannons are everywhere, and the views from the battlements are spectacular! Exhibits include old blunderbusses, muskets, cutlasses, and more. A cañonazo ceremony is held at sunset, when soldiers in period costume load and put a torch to a cannon in a time-honored tradition that once announced the nightly sealing of the harbor.

The clifftops are pinned by the Faro del Morro, a lighthouse built in 1920 and still using the original hand-wound Fresnel lens floating in mercury. It’s part of a military complex and thereby off-limits.

Bus #212 runs from downtown to Embarcadero Cayo Granma, from where you can hike up to the castle. If driving, the Morro is signed from Santiago. Follow Avenida 12 de Agosto south from Plaza de Marte; this leads to Carretera del Morro. Alternately, you can drive the Carretera Turística, which begins at the southern end of Avenida Jesús Menéndez, following the bayshore to emerge atop the cliffs immediately east of the castle. En route, you’ll pass Punta Gorda, a slender peninsula once fashionable with Santiago’s upper class. A large statue of revolutionary hero Frank País looms over the point in Parque Frank País.