Fuerte de Buenos Aires

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Fuerte de Buenos Aires
Watercolor depicting El Fuerte and the playa baja, painting by Emeric Essex Vidal (in 1816), note that the Argentine flag was already flying at that time. The territory of the playa baja was filled in at the end of the 19th century and corresponds to the current Puerto Madero.
Type	Military fortress
Area	Monserrat, Buenos Aires
Site information
Owner	Spanish Empire - until 1810
Condition	demolished
Site history
Built	16th century
Battles/wars	British invasions of the Río de la Plata

The Fort of Buenos Aires was a fortress destined to defend Buenos Aires and to be the seat of the Spanish colonial authorities in the city. Its construction began in 1595 and after several refurbishments it was finished only at the beginning of the 18th century, being demolished in 1882. It received the name of Real Fortaleza de Don Juan Baltasar de Austria (Royal Fortress of Don Juan Baltasar of Austria), and in the 17th century it was called Castillo de San Miguel Arcángel del Buen Ayre.^[1]

It was located on the banks of the Río de la Plata, which at that time was less than a hundred meters from the Plaza de Mayo. It occupied the same site that today occupies the Casa Rosada, seat of the executive power of the Argentine Republic. It had a stone wall, with a moat surrounding it, a drawbridge over the square, with bastions in its corners with cannons and interior buildings.

Acarette du Biscay, a French traveler, described it thus in 1658:

...[the city] has a small earthen fort overlooking the river encircled by a moat and mounts ten iron cannons being the largest caliber of twelve. The governor resides there and the garrison is composed of only 150 men in three companies, commanded by three captains appointed by the governor at his pleasure..."

— 1658.