Agüi Fort (), also written as Agui or Ahui, and otherwise known as San Miguel de Agüi Castle), is a fortification located on the Lacuy peninsula,

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

History

The function of this fort was the defense of the city of Ancud, in which it protected the southern coast of the Chacao Channel. The fort was built between 1776 and 1779, according to the plans of the engineer of Spanish descent Miguel de Zorrilla. The fort also served to protect the ships that traveled between the island of Chiloe and Continental Chile. In 1818, the walls of the fort were reinforced using cancagua stone. The fort was besieged by the Chilean army in 1820 and 1824, during the Chilean independence process. The fort was taken by the patriot forces led by Alexander Cochrane in the 1826 campaign. In 1826, ownership of the fort was transferred to the Chilean Navy. The fort's infrastructure was affected after the

1960 Valdivia earthquake The 1960 Valdivia earthquake and tsunami () or the Great Chilean earthquake (''Gran terremoto de Chile'') occurred on 22 May 1960. Most studies have placed it at 9.5–9.6 on the moment magnitude scale, while some studies have placed the magnitu ...

. In 1911, the artist Courtois de Bonnencontre made several illustrations of the fort. In 1991, the fort was declared a national monument. In 2012, part of the fort was remodeled, this remodeling was financed by the

Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international development finance institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America. It serves as one of the leading sources of development financing for the countri ...

and the Undersecretariat of Regional and Administrative Development. The main objective with the remodeling of the fort was for the conservation and recovery of the historical and cultural heritage, as well as to encourage tourism on the island of Chiloe. In 2016, the people responsible for the remodeling received the Ibero-American award for the restoration of the fort granted by the International Center for Heritage Conservation and the Central Society of Architects, the restoration of the fort is part of the "10th version of the Ibero-American Award for the Best Intervention in Works Involving Built Heritage".

Structure

The fort has a dungeon, a powder magazine and an access built with cancagua stone extracted from a quarry near Ancud. The fort has 12 cannons. The fort also has 15 pieces of artwork and a walled circuit.

References

Coastal fortifications in Chile Military installations established in 1779 {{Fort-stub