Castillo de San Felipe de Lara

OVERVIEW

A stone fortress at the point where Lake Izabal narrows into the Río Dulce, built to stop English, Dutch and Portuguese raiders reaching the lake's warehouses after an earlier fort was destroyed in 1604. The present castle dates from 1651 and served as fort, customs post and prison. It was abandoned in 1817, reconstructed in 1955–56 by the architect Francisco Ferrús Roig from plans in the Archivo General de Indias, restored again in 2001 and placed on UNESCO's tentative list in 2002.

HISTORY

Nineteen cannon defended the lake trade; a chain was stretched across the river. The fort's prison cells held colonial prisoners and, later, political ones. Its life as a working post ended when Puerto Barrios and the railway took the trade.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Local tradition, printed in the Guatemalan press and in the regional 'most haunted' lists, holds that on the Thursday of Corpus Christi the fort comes alive again: cannon fire, shouted orders, the clash of swords, and the figures of pirates and soldiers on the walls. Staff and visitors also report footsteps and presences after dark. The tradition is folklore; the battles it recalls are documented.

VISITING

Open daily as a national monument, by road or boat from Río Dulce town.