The Fortaleza del Cerro, also known as Fortaleza General Artigas, is a fortress situated in
Montevideo
Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...
,
Uruguay
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
overlooking the
Bay of Montevideo. It belongs to the ''barrio'' of
Casabó
Casabó is a neighbourhood of Montevideo, Uruguay.
Geography
The neighbourhood of Casabó is located in the southwestern part of Montevideo, between the districts of Santa Catalina to the west, Villa del Cerro to the east, Villa Esperanza to the ...
, at the west of
Villa del Cerro. It holds a dominant position on the highest hill of the department of Montevideo (popularly known as ''Cerro de Montevideo'') with an altitude of 134 meters above sea level, on the opposite side of the bay.
Its function was to defend the population of Montevideo and its port, on the
río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata (; ), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda, Colonia, Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and ...
. Governor
Francisco Javier de Elío
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Meaning of the name Francisco
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...
ordered construction in 1809 and it was completed in 1839;
this was the last Spanish fort built in Uruguay. It has housed the Military Museum since 1916.
Monument and Sight
It has been a National Monument since 1931
and has housed a military museum since 1916.
Today it is a well-known attraction for tourists visiting Montevideo.
See also
*
List of lighthouses in Uruguay
References
External links
www.uruguaytotal.com/virtual/cerro(Spanish)
(Spanish)
(Spanish)
Forts in Uruguay
Buildings and structures in Montevideo
Monuments and memorials in Montevideo
Lighthouses in Uruguay
Villa del Cerro
Military and war museums in Uruguay
1802 establishments in Uruguay
José Gervasio Artigas
National Historic Monuments of Uruguay
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