7-Fort San Lorenzo: Fuerte de San Lorenzo

The Fort of San Lorenzo, located at the entrance to the Chagres River in the province of Colon, Panama. It was declared by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1980 under the name of the Fortifications on the Caribbean coast of Panama, with the fortifications of the city of Portobelo. They were defensive system transatlantic trade Crown of Spain and are a fine example of military architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The fort of San Lorenzo is one of the oldest Spanish forts in America. It is located next to what was the old seat of the town of Chagres , at the mouth of the river of the same name , and it was through this river that the pirate Henry Morgan came to the city of Panama " La Vieja " to plunder .
As we have seen , Francis Drake attacks off the coast of the Kingdom of the mainland in 1572 , especially the attacks on God's Name and the Camino Real , which was the way by which transited the treasures that came from Peru , forced to build a defense system in the Atlantic ports. So they decided to build Fort San Lorenzo to protect the entrance of the waterway that penetrated near the old city of Panama .
The work began in 1598 by order of King Philip II and completed in 1601. The planes of the massive fortress were made ​​by the Italian engineer Bautista Antonelli . The Castle of San Lorenzo was built on top of a high reef , completely dominating position of the Chagres River entrance .