CASTILLO DE SAN ANTONIO DE LA EMINENCIA

It is a little thanks to France that the fort is there. After looting by His Majesty's privateers in France in 1654, the governor of Cumaná decided to equip himself with this defensive work whose construction began in 1659 to end in 1686. The strategic location then allows to visualize the town of Cumaná, the Gulf of Cariaco and the Péninsule peninsula. You will notice that the castle has walls of 2 m wide, that it is constructed as stars with 4 ends as the cardinal points. The fort also served as a prison to José Antonio Páez, the country's first president, who wrote part of his Memoirs and to José Tadeo Monagas, president between 1847 and 1851 and from 1855 to 1858. The earthquake of 1853 destroyed the castle which was rebuilt only at the beginning of our century. He was declared a National Monument in 1965, and today we still discover the secret tunnels and passages that lead to different parts of the city.