Fortaleza Ozama

An impressive architectural structure of medieval style and design, the Tower of Homage (Spanish: Torre del Homenaje) stands in the center of the grounds. The castle was designed to guard the entrance to the port of Santo Domingo and defend the city from seaborne enemies. Coral stones extracted from the sea were used for construction.[3] Black and Taino slaves worked for the construction of the fortress. Nicolás de Ovando, founder of Santo Domingo, personally chose the lot of the construction. The fortress was considered the Axis of the Conquest by the Spaniards once they had explored the whole island.[4]

The architect of the building was Gómez Garcia de Varela. The construction started with the main tower, then the shooting platforms, then the main defensive fort.[4]

It was completed in 1505.[5] During the 16th century, the 18-meter high tower was the highest European-built construction of the Americas.[6] The entrance gate on Calle Damas was originally built in 1608, known as the Prevention Gate.[7] In 1787, the gated entrance was replaced by the actual one, the Carlos III gate. The doors were made in imported African ebony. There are bullets holes in the doors dating from 1965, when US soldiers intervened in the island during the Dominican Civil War.[6]

Black slaves and pirates were usually jailed in the fortress. During the 1900s, the ex-presidents Jacinto Peynado and Horacio Vásquez did some time in the prison.[3] In 1937, under the leadership of Rafael Trujillo, the outside walls were crenellated. In 1965, the Fortaleza ceased to serve as a prison and became a public building. The Fortaleza was never seized by attacking enemies.[3]

The length of the city walls in 1785. The Ozama Fortress was its main feature. Model exhibits at the Museo de las Casas Reales in Santo Domingo

The Fortaleza is located at the end of Las Damas Street.

The statue in front of the building depicts Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, governor of the fortress from 1533 to 1557, and author of Historia General y Natural de las Indias. The statue was imported from Salamanca, Spain in 1977, and was made by the artist Joaquín Vaquero Turcio[3][6]

The central tower of the building is 18-meter high, with walls 2-meter thick.[6] The fortified walls around the building are 3-meter thick, except on the river-side where the walls are 1-meter thick. The cement holding the stoned walls together is a mixture of gypsum, clay, lime and the blood of animals.[4]

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  Fortress Ozama
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  Homage Tower in Ozama Fortress
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  Tower of Homage
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  Top of the lower tower
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  Fortress entrance
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  Fortress interior garden
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  Statue of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés
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  View from across the Ozama river

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fortaleza Ozama.

• Colonial City of Santo Domingo
• List of oldest buildings in the Americas