Dana gonzalez arbelaez-1799

                                                                 

                                                the walls 

The walls were conceived in order to protect Cartagena de Indias from the continuous attacks that it underwent. Its construction was carried out in stages, beginning in 1586 Bautista Antonelli, an Italian engineer in the service of the Spanish Crown. Then came in 1608 Cristobal de Roda, who would fortify almost all the part of the city that overlooks the open sea. From 1631 to 1633 the turn of Francisco de Murga would be fortifying the whole neighborhood of Getsemaní. In 1669 to the engineer Juan Betín he had the task of repairing the walls destroyed by the sea in 1669. The walls were subject of continuous attacks by the sea and a recent attack of the Baron of Pointis so that again Don Juan de Herrera and Sotomayor restart repairs. The Viceroy of Villalonga orders to Herrera to construct submarine boxes forming a breakwater in front of the destroyed walls, in 1721. Another breakwater was to be built on the route between Punta Icacos (near the present Hotel Caribe) and Tierrabomba by Antonio de Arévalo, the most renowned engineer who has worked in the city. In 1796 the works of the center of the city would be finished.