The Bulwark of San Ignacio

It was finished about 1630 by order of the governor, Francisco de Murga, extending to the south the construction begun by Cristóbal de Roda three decades earlier. Projected to defend the isthmus of Bocagrande and the Bay of Ánimas, this bulwark, initially known as the Bulwark of the Moors, changed its name and its configuration because of its proximity to the Jesuit school.

The first wall built in this section was constructed on lands belonging to the Jesuits, and the Jesuits ended up boring a hole in the wall to build their school and cloister on top of it, thereby rendering invalid its defensive function. After a dispute that lasted for thirty years, it was decided to move the wall toward the outside, creating a street that would allow passage between the school and the future wall, the Religious Order assuming the costs of the new construction.

Upon moving the wall it was also necessary to move forward the Bulwark of San Ignacio. It would be Juan de Herrera y Sotomayor who, around 1730, would give it its current dimension, with a baroque sentry-box, an ample base, an irregular site and an access ramp.

At the end of the XVIII century, the engineer Antonio de Arévalo undertook some conditioning that gave it its definitive configuration, enduring until the beginning of the XX century, when the Monument to the Flag was built on its platform, adding stairs and cement urns. The restoration carried out in 1969 by the Ministry of Public Works gave the bulwark its old-time splendor, restoring its parapets, recovering the slope, reconstructing the covered area and exposing the access ramp.