Solano Castle is located in the San Esteban National Park, south of Puerto Cabello, in Carabobo, Venezuela. It is a military castle built in 1766 by order of governor of Venezuela, Don José Solano y Bote. It was constructed in the area referred to as Cresta de Vigía (or "lookout crest") and was intended to protect the city and harbour from naval attacks. During the Venezuelan War of Independence, Solano Castle saw a great deal of military activity.
Before the construction of the castle, the hill (approximately 500 metres in altitude) was a base where they had installed an artillery battery which served to respond to violent attacks from the British navy in 1743. The hill provided a clear view in all directions, making it ideal as a lookout point, allowing them to supervise sailing travelers and the activities in the nearby port. The construction of this lookout was decided by Juan Gayago y Lascan, as more permanent and more effective surveillance from the hill was sought.
Shortly afterwards a captain by the name of Don José Solano y Bote decided to order the construction of a fort with artillery in order to strengthen the defense of the port and the city. For this project he recruited a number of military engineers in his confidence for their experience.
The castle was constructed with slave labor and prisoners from La Guaira and Castillo San Felipe (also known as Castillo del Libertador). The construction was unique in Puerto Cabello, as it was built with nearby rocks. as well as stone from the quarries in the region.
Solano Castle was not constructed thinking only of protecting the port visited by pirates, traders, and travelers; it would also provide security to the riverbed of San Esteban and Carabobo path between San Esteban and Valencia.
The barbet batteries of the castle of Solano [4] on the elevation of the hill, are the first line of defense for the castle; no pits, no rakes, or other protective work. Therefore, it is considered very minor and as they must defend themselves three hundred yards from the plaza, as well as having to climb the summit without being seen and so can only give signals, as their siege cannot fail to miss with troops, artillery, and gunpowder parts.
Solano Castle, also known as Solano lookout, had artillery to assist in safeguarding the ways to Borburata, San Esteban y Goaigoaza. The protection of the area provided by the artillery was invaluable beyond just safeguarding the port and the province, because it was a region rich in agriculture.
| Iron cannons | Batteries | Military Personnel |
|---|---|---|
| 4 24-inch calibre | 2 24-inch calibre cannons | 1 Captain |
| 4 4-inch calibre | 4 4-inch calibre cannons | 1 Lieutenant |
| 2 2-inch calibre cannons | — | 24 Artillery soldiers |
| 10 Swivel-guns with line[5] and whip-staff [6] | — | 38 Militia soldiers |
The infantry lieutenant-colonel José Antonio del Pozo y Sucre (an engineer) reached Puerto Cabello at the end of 1787. He presented a report on the true state of the fortifications at the time.[7]
There were serious problems with water storage for the settlers of what was called "Puerto Cabello Square", started the report:
and where they intend and are working towards moving the whole of the population formerly established in Tierra Firma, there is the problem of not having standing water, as well as the low elevation this land has above sea level which does not permit the construction of underground cisterns, for which reason its inhabitants find themselves having to pay dearly for their drinking water, or to go to fetch it from the river San Esteban, which is more than a quarter of a league from the square.
Within the report there is an interestingly-written description of Puerto Cabello:
the population is composed of two classes of resident, neither of which leave the sphere of poverty: one is so numerous that its rooms are reduced to barracks, the so-called Tapia Houses.[8] And the other is lucky to be somewhat better off, investing all their wealth in building their homes for their own comfort and that of their family.
In reference to the fortresses, the Engineer José del Pozo had very precise opinions, particularly concerning the closure of the Mirador (viewpoint):
The high and rugged Monte de las Vigías (Watchtowers' Mount) had been occupied as it was with its curtain walls, redoubts and cuts in the most advantageous positions, building in each of these its guard force, small supply store, gunpowder repositories and cisterns proportional to its size to sustain a garrison or defence for one or two months.
On the 7 and 26 August 1814, the respective maintenance offices for Mirador de Solano and Vigías gathered. According to José Mariano Aloy[9] the fortifications of Puerto Cabello needed special attention; the offices would require:
Mirador de Solano needs ten cubic varas [thirty cubic feet] of ordinary masonry, seventy varas of concrete slabs, sixty tiles, fifty fanegas [84 bushels] of lime for minting, whitewashing, etc. One hundred and twenty days' wages for builders and two hunder and forty for laborers.
Las Vigías, lower and intermediate, were demolished before the second siege by order of the Lord Captain-General, as there was noone to garrison in them and they were therefore his works between this Square and the Castillo San Felipe. It is necessary to build them again.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the country was visited by important figures of the time. These visitors commented on Solano Castle, describing it in different ways, but capturing its imposing structure and functioning for the future in reports and writing.
The most famous of its visitors include Agostino Codazzi, Alexander von Humboldt, Louis Philippe, comte de Ségur, Karl Ferdinand Appun, Joseph Luis de Cisneros, Miguel María Lisboa, Wilhelm Sievers, Francisco Depons, Dauxion Lavaysse, Antonio Manzano, Willian Duane, Jenny Talleney, Robert Semple and James Mudie Spence.
Carl Ferdinand Appun entered Venezuelan territory in 1849, at only 29 years of age, and described the region with great affection.[10] He refers to the Mirador as follows:
It is a steep hill, five hundred feet tall and covered with dense thickets. Standing out above this are the white walls of an old Spanish castle, the watchtower which now serves as a signal for arriving boats, and for whose maintenance all vessels reaching the port must pay the government a considerable tax, known as "lantern money". Well maintained and provided with a deep well, the castle is uninhabited and is used exclusively as a nest for a great number of vultures, whose expert, sharpened gazes and refined olfactory organs let them hunt from there, from animals slaughtered in an abattoir to starved oxen or donkeys who fall dead in the grassland.
Perhaps for commercial or personal reasons, he arrived in Puerto Cabello in 1810/1811. He describes the region and refers to Solano Castle thus:
Up to the interior of the coast there are no notable fortifications, but the village can be defended by the cannons which, from the hills, dominate the southern part of the city.
A geographer. Born in Germany and a relative of Karl Ferdinand Appun, he was in Puerto Cabello in the final decades of the 19th century. He was able to compile some interesting facts, which he published along with useful observations and details of the Venezuelan customs of the time. He carried out a study on the state of politics in Venezuela,[11] and relates some events which started in Puerto Cabello during its occupation by the Legalist forces of General Joaquín Crespo, as well as referring to the Castle.
Once the combination of the principal army of the opposition and the troops of the head of activities in Carabobo, general José Félix Mora, was achieved, Crespo proposed that Puerto Cabello be taken. Although the Square was only defended by a weak garrison, its conquest promised to be difficult, due to Fort Libertador which cut off access to the city. The opposing troops took control of Solano Castle, known as the Watchtower and situated above the city on the landward side, in the morning of August 22.
The roof of the customs office was completely riddles with rifle shot; in Comercio street impact damage could be seen on all the upper floots, as Venezuelan soldiers customarily discharge their weapons from under their arms. The red hat used as a shop-sign outside a German hatter's, like the riding boot used for the same reason outside a shoeshop, was equally riddled with holes.
Pedro Carujo, from Barcelona, Anzoátegui, was a soldier and journalist and one of the leaders of the 1835 Reform Revolutions. His parents were José Carujo, a Royalist official born in the Canary Islands, and Juana Hernández, Venezuelan by birth. He was part of the Orinoco battalion quartered in Angostura in 1819. He was renowned for his intellectual abilities.
He did not share the ideals of the Liberator Simón Bolívar, was openly opposed to any dictator and considered Bolívar to be a tyrant. The Liberator was Supreme Chief of the political powers of Gran Colombia and Carujo became his personal enemy, resulting in attempts on his life. He participated in a group of conspirators made up of officials.
On 28 September 1828 he attempted to assassinate Bolívar in his home in Bogotá, but the plan was thwarted thanks to the intervention of Manuela Sáenz.
Although Carujo was saved from the firing squad, he was put on the frigate Colombia and sent to Venezuela. He was taken as a political prisoner with no rights.[12] The ship's commanders were English (the first in command) and Spanish (the second), both admirers of Bolívar. His punishment lasted beyond his time on the boat; on removing his shackles in order to bring him ashore his arms were tied to an ox, and he was led through the most public places in Puerto Cabello to be shown as a fugitive, assassin and criminal. The frigate reached Venezuela on 3 March 1829.
The next stage was to bring him to the Watchtower fort, well guarded between lines of soldiers, and he was shut into a vault with little air and almost no light. The commandant of the fort took charge of him and made him fully experience the severity of the crime he had committed - it was Antonio Valero who took charge of this, being himself a personal enemy of Carujo.[13]
His stay in the fortress lasted five months, in which he prepared for his escape, thinking that he was being imprisoned while the "tyrant" (as he referred to Bolívar) was in power. He managed to escape on 2 August, but left a written justification of his flight.
In 1836, with the castle almost abandoned and only occupied by soldiers, it was decided to install a telegraph in the Viewpoint. The system installed was a semaphore line, a strong and tall wooden post which transmits with combinations of a mobile-arm mechanism. It was used on different occasions and worked for several years.
The document sent to Puerto Cabello on the use of the castle as a telegraphy base was the following:[14]
Republic of Venezuela
Valencia, 22 September 1836
Superior Political Government of Carabobo
No 568.To the Political Leader of the Canton of Puerto Cabello.
The Lord Secretary of State in the War Office instructed me as follows on the 8th of this month.
As the Watchtower of Puerto Cabello is not assigned to any military service, and as the establishment there of a telegraph for commercial needs would be very convenient, the Executive Power orders me to tell you to dedicate your efforts to achieving the important aim mentioned, as it will serve the commerce of the port well.
I am writing to you so that, in accordance with the lords of commerce of this port, the best choices are made for the convenience of the establishment of the telegraph.
Yours faithfully,
—Alejandro Landaeta
In 1875 Carlos Brandt, a writer, polyglot and philosopher who came to be recognised as a distinguished personage, was born in a village in Carabobo. He made a detailed description of the events in which La Guaira and Puerto Cabello would become involved during the Venezuelan Crisis of 1902. He explained how the castle played an important part in defending the region against stronger enemies.
During the naval blockade of Venezuela, the ships Charybdis and SMS Vineta reached Puerto Cabello under British and German flags respectively and immediately attacked the city, justifying this action by mentioning some offenses against the officers and crew of a British merchant ship named Topaze which had been in the docks of the old customs-house, in December 1902.
Brandt describes these occurrences, calling them "the famous Solano Castle shooting":
It was almost 5pm on that fateful day, 13 December, when, convinced that Cipriano Castro would not answer us or that he would do so later, I decided to go to San Esteban in order to see how to move my family there. To this effect I asked permission from my leader, general Mora, and left.As I got closer to Solano Castle, the end of which was only two cuadras[15] away from me, firing broke out. Later people spoke of a shot fired from the Castle. Many denied such a shot; others said that it was fired by Captain Meyer, and others, including General López Contreras, maintained that it was Antenor Ugueto who did so. But most people believe that it was an unknown soldier who, on hearing the first shots from the Charybdis, did not wish to run before, out of spite, throwing a lit match into the mouth of the cannon.
But the fact it that at that time I was able to see and describe the trajectory of almost every shot fired from the Viñeta. I saw first of all an explosion in the Castle's esplanade, an explosion which must have left the cannon without ammunition. I then saw the two first shots from the Viñeta which knocked down the two small cannons which were in the Castle. I never imagined a more accurate aim. The remaining shots were directed towards the base of Solano Watchtower, but without managing to demolish it; but we already know that the Spanish built their fortresses with a material more solid than granite itself.
The fort was abandoned by the military. This occurred during the reign of the government of Wolfgang Larrazábal, who was president of the government of Venezuela in 1958.
All of the weapons systems and radar missiles were deactivated and retired, as it was alleged that the site was obsolete for military purposes and thus the maintenance of the armaments and radars installed there was not justifiable. A group of young intellectuals from Puerto Cabello made a symbolic example of Solano Castle, decrying the disassembly of the work unnecessary. The ideologists and leaders of this group later disappeared completely from the public eye.
The houses that had housed the troops went to ruins through the action of vandals who gathered at the site, which was neglected by the authorities. The canons were moved to the Venezuelan Military Academy. At the time, local authorities were not interested in what happened to the fort, and it was dismantled without consideration for its status as a historic landmark of Puerto Cabello, and integral to its heritage.
During the 60s Venezuela experienced two military uprisings in which the Venezuelan Communist Party participated. The first occurred on 4 May 1962 and was known as the Carupanazo, and the second, the Porteñazo, occurred on 2 June of the same year. The Marine Infantry Battalion of Carúpano, the National Guard and Puerto Cabello's naval base participated in them.
These insurrections took place due to the difficult political situation in Venezuela under the presidency of Rómulo Betancourt (1959–1964).
The rebellion was dissipated in the dawn of 3 June, leaving more than 400 dead and 700 injured, and by 6 June the last rebels were found entrenched in Castle Solano.
Different stories retelling the event mourned Venezuela, taking the rebellion as an unjust and unnecessary act of war. Many reconciled what had happened according to their personal and political affiliations.
Alí Brett[16] wrote, according to his investigation:
After 6am on Sunday the masonry of Solano Castle began receiving the impact of bombs. When the bombing began, we were in the neighbourhood "las Tejerías" a few metres from the old fortress, which, for the first time in several centuries was a victim of an attack of this nature.
The fort was an enigma of the uprising and much was speculated about its power. All of the stories told of the advantages and strategic position of the "Black Burro" (a popular name for the antique cannon). People knowledgeable of this weapon know that if it was fired, even only once, Puerto Cabello would disappear.
Barely keeping up during the insurgency, the marines raised the Naval Base to guard the fort, whose inhabitants, by this day, Monday the 4th of June, were already dead. The presence of the executive officials and some military leaders clarified the mystery that had almost become the truth during the course of events, due to ill-founded stories.
He concludes his investigation by saying:
That the fort could be used as a point of operations for the rebels signifies one of the many known military errors of the event; after the appearance of the airplane as an element of war, these strengths were of no strategic effect.
Today, Solano Castle is a tourist attraction where visitors can learn of the history of the area. The site contains a restaurant, holds tours, and has visiting hours from 8:00am to 6:00pm daily.
Within the city, several legends had been created in which Solano Castle was the main character. People said that there was a cave connecting the fortress with the castle, supposedly crossing under the sea from one to the other. There was also a retired soldier, a lieutenant colonel who once served the Castle in an official capacity, who at his advanced age enjoyed telling of how he had found a chest in a tunnel under the fort, containing discoloured uniforms and documents which had been the property of José Solano, who had been a Captain after whom the Castle was names. He embellished the story saying:
After having walked a great distance, lit by two powerful lamps, in the company of a First Corporal and two soldiers, we were surprised to come across a sort of chamber, where on top of a table lay an old chest with various loose planks. On searching it we found that it contained various uniforms discoloured by age, a sword whose handle was stamped with a coat of arms, and beneath these some documents which certified their origin: they belonged to José Solano, ex-Captain General of Venezuela in the 18th century. Yes, they were undoubtedly things left there by Solano.
What this retired soldier did not know is that Solano never visited the place which took his name.
In the Castle there is a tank for storing rain-water which was used in colonial times, on which popular legends are based.
In the military ranks there was a young man from Barlovento, a village in western Venezuela, who had died at the entrance to the Puerto Cabello graveyard. This young soldier was called Roso Busich, and he served in the Castle. It was said that on passing the long cemetery wall, his skull would appear on the walkway along which one had to walk.
The entire San Esteban road accumulated a series of stories, anecdotes, historical processes and other trivia, true or invented by their protagonists.
This article incorporates material from Venezuelatuya.com, by the virtue of authorization provided to add content and images and publish them under the GFDL license. This article incorporates material from FAV-Club.com, by the virtue of authorization provided to add content and images and publish them under the GFDL license.