Havana Castle Of The Royal Force

The Castillo de la Real Fuerza is the oldest stone fortress built by Spaniards in the Americas, easily identified by the bronze weather vane of a woman clutching a cross and a palm branch perched atop its watchtower. Completed in fifteen seventy-seven, the fort was intended to guard against pirate raids, but its location proved nearly useless because it sat too far inside the harbor. Governor Hernando de Soto’s wife, Inés de Bobadilla, waited years on that tower for his return from Florida until she died.