Description of the attraction
Bastion of Santiago, also known as the Bastion of Gunpowder, is located on Francisco Street in the Mexican port town of Veracruz, just five blocks from City Hall. The second name is due to the fact that gunpowder and military weapons were kept in the basement of the fortress. This military structure was built in 1635. The wall protecting the city consisted of nine bastions, which formed the city's defense system. This is the only bastion that has survived to this day. Located on the Gulf Coast, the port of Veracruz has often suffered from pirate attacks.
Today, Santiago, with its thick and high walls with bullet marks, is the only remnant of the city's military defense system. Other strongholds were destroyed at the end of the nineteenth century. Inside there is a museum, opened here in 1991. Its exhibition contains various documents and objects from the colonial era and offers a small permanent exhibition of pre-Columbian jewelry called "Treasures of the Fisherman", consisting of 42 items - bracelets, earrings and breast ornaments. All this wealth was discovered at the bottom of the sea by a local fisherman, so this name stuck to the collection. During the tour, you will be told about the methods used by the craftsmen of the pre-Columbian era in the process of making jewelry.
