Fort of Santa Catalina, Colonial military fort in Barrios Altos, Lima, Peru
The Fort of Santa Catalina is an adobe fortress with neoclassical design in Barrios Altos, Lima. Thick walls surround the square towers at its corners, and the facade displays ornamental capitals, while inside are soldiers' quarters, stables, storage rooms, and a chapel dedicated to Saint Barbara.
The fortress was built in the early 1800s under Viceroy Gabriel de Avilés to defend Lima from English naval threats. It later became a protected National Historic-Artistic Monument, standing as one of Peru's rare surviving examples of colonial military construction.
The site served as a working military installation for generations, and today visitors can observe how soldiers once moved through its spaces and lived within its walls. The chapel inside reflects how faith remained part of daily military life even in a fortress designed for war.
The fortress sits at the corner of Jiron Inambari and Jiron Andahuaylas in the Barrios Altos district and is easy to reach on foot. Wear comfortable shoes, as exploring the rooms and towers inside involves walking through various spaces and climbing some stairs.
The outer walls have antique cannons embedded within them, remnants of the original defensive system. These mounted guns reveal the engineering methods used to make the fortress truly formidable against attackers.
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