El Castillo San Felipe Del Morro

This fort is also known as 'El Morro', and it is a pretty sweet fort in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Spanish-built in the 1600s and actively garrisoned up until the mid-1900s, it saw plenty of service and even fired the first U.S. shot of WW1 (at an unarmed freighter, but still).


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El Morro features an expansively beautiful front lawn (killing field) and an excitingly chunky design style. Because it operated continuously for so long, you can see the evolution of design from a tiny outpost to a bulky fortress. During WW2 an armored fire control station was added to run harbor defenses from.  

It has some cute cupolas that are one of the national symbols of Puerto Rico. It is considered good form to have your picture taken while peeping out of one.

It is an okay place to bring a small child but there are no crocodiles or guns so they will get bored fast. A safer bet is to bring old people to this fort because they will like the front lawn (killing field). It will remind them of History and they will tell you a Story about History.