Castillo San Felipe del Morro, Old San Juan

Six levels of masonry on a 140-foot headland at the mouth of San Juan Bay, begun in 1539 and still growing two and a half centuries later. It is the image most people carry of this city before they arrive, and the one place here where the approach is as good as the arrival. Guided walks that include the entry ticket are among the fort tours in Old San Juan listings.

Six levels, and which one you want

The National Park Service describes the fort as consisting of six levels facing the Atlantic Ocean. They step down the seaward face rather than stacking up, so the experience is of descending into the work rather than climbing a tower. The upper terraces carry the batteries and the long views out to sea and back across the bay towards Cataño; the lower levels hold the vaulted casemates and the ramps that connect them.

If you only have an hour, spend it on the upper terraces and the ramp system. That is where the sentry boxes sit on the seaward corners, where the fort's scale becomes legible, and where almost every photograph you have seen of it was taken.

1539 to 1790: how it grew

Construction began in 1539 and the fort was completed around 1790. Nothing about that gap is unusual for a work of this kind — it was rebuilt repeatedly as artillery improved and as the threat changed. The Italian military engineers Bautista Antonelli and Juan Bautista Antonelli reshaped it during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

The final phase came under Field Marshal Alexander O'Reilly, with Chief Engineer Colonel Thomas O'Daly responsible for the last major construction and renovations. What stands now is essentially their fort. The full sequence, with the rest of the city, is on the history page.

The esplanade, the kites and the walk out

The great green field in front of the fort is not a park by accident — it is the glacis, the deliberately cleared field of fire, and it is now the best approach to any monument in the Caribbean. The park describes the esplanade as a spot for family activities and names kite flying among them, and recommends it for stargazing on account of the height and the low light pollution.

Below it, the Paseo del Morro runs along the outside of the wall at sea level, and the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis cemetery sits between the fort and the ocean with its domed chapel. Both are free and both are worth the extra twenty minutes.

The cemetery below the walls

Between the fort and the ocean, on a shelf of ground below the north wall, lies the Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis cemetery, with a small domed chapel at its centre and the Atlantic breaking directly behind it. It is one of the most photographed views in Puerto Rico and it appears on the published stop list of several of the tours here.

It is a working cemetery rather than an attraction, and the usual answer is to look down on it from the wall above rather than to walk in. The neighbourhood beyond it is La Perla, which sits between the wall and the sea.

Getting in: the fee, the hours, the receipt

Those are the National Park Service's own published figures. The 24-hour rule is the one worth acting on: pay once, do this fort in the late afternoon and San Cristóbal the next morning, and you have seen both for $10 a head.

Which tours go inside

Going inside and walking past are different products, and the listings are clear about which is which. Four state the entrance fee in their own inclusions. One states the opposite and excludes the El Morro fee by name. The rest either pass the fort on the route or stop outside it for photographs — the golf-car tour's own itinerary gives it five minutes.

The most direct of them is Old San Juan and El Morro Castle Walking Tour. It carries the entry ticket, gives the fort forty-five minutes, and meets a short walk from cruise piers 3 and 4. The full set is on the fort tours page.

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