Santa María de la Cabeza castle

Santa María de La Cabeza castle
Cumaná, Venezuela
Outside walls of the Santa María de La Cabeza castle
Type	Fortress
Site information
Controlled by	State government
Open to the public	yes
Condition	Destroyed
Site history
Built	c. ???? (????)

Description

A plan of the Santa María de la cabeza castle, designed by engineer Pablo Díaz Fajardo in 1737

The Santa María de La Cabeza castle is a fortress built as a replacement of the San Antonio de la Eminencia castle in he city of Cumaná, and its contruction was ordered by Sancho Fernando de Angulo y Sandoval, governor of the Province of Cumaná c. 1669-73. The structure was built around 400 metres (1,300 ft) from the San Antonio castle, and next to the St. Agne's Church. Located at the center of the city over a small hill that overlooks its surroundings, it has a squared shape with bastions at the corners designed by Angulo y Sandoval. The castle was described as having a low defensive power.

The bulding was designed under the strict typological canons established in the seventeenth century. With a regular and proportionate floor based in geometry; the bastion is the main element applied as a defensive technique for the construction of the fort. This typological technique was spread in Latin America since the beginning of the sixthteenth century, and is known as a permanent bastioned fortification design. Notwithstanding, the Santa María de La Cabeza castle has a fundamental difference with regard to other permanent bastioned fortifications: the design of its walls was developed into two sections. The lower body is plain and perpendicular to the pit; the upper body is tilted after the master cordon. Those changes catalogs the fort as a unique bulding in the country.

Usually, contruction of the steep was held oppositely, with the lower body tilted, and the upper body upright. The Santa María de La Cabeza was built with marly limestone ashlar with fossil leftovers, and its front was oriented to the east. Its perimeter was trailed by a pit, which was originally built as part of the original design plans of the fort, along with the Plaza de Armas (Weapons' Square). As of 2008, the fort has lost its parapets and shelters, although its architectural typology is preserved in the composition of its plant defenses and straight walls.

Origins

A seventeenth century depiction of Cumaná by Luis Daniel Beauperthuy Urich

Don Sancho Fernando de Angulo y Sandoval started, without proper authorization nor prior favorable opinion from the war council, the construction of a new fortress under the excuse that the fort of San Antonio did not cover the expected requirements; he considered that due to its location at the top of a hill, far from the city and the coast, as well as the lack of proper water supply, the San Antonio castle was not suitable for defense.

The governor claimed that under these disadvantages, along with the lack of accommodation facilities for the soldiers, the bulding was rendered unable to resist prolongated sieges. Unlike its predecessor Urtarte, who requested economical support to supply and improve San Antonio's condition, Angulo y Sandoval decided to build a new castle more prepared to defend the city than the two existing fortifications. The resulting fortress was entitled Santa María de la Cabeza; the governor then requested the demolition of the older two structures as inoperative.

History

On 4 May 1684, an earthquake devastated the city, then located at the foot of the San Francisco hill. The effects of this earthquake are recounted in several items of correspondence sent to the King of Spain, and collected in an documentary investigation completed by J. Grases (1979). The quake had destructive effects on the Santa Maria castle, which was severely damaged. After the intervention held in 1912 by Santos Berrizbeitia, who offers himself to repair the castle, the embarkment is filled for contrsuction of the Ermita del Carmen and all the deteriorated parapets are demolished. This probably left the slopes and terraces present in the 1737 map by Diaz Fajardo.

The project for defense of the city designed in 1777, engineer Agustín Crame deprecates the road linking both the Santa María de la Cabeza and the San Antonio de la Eminencia castle. His only mention of such road indicates that, if built, this should be done with gravel. With the urban growth of the city between the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the are surrounding both castles and the Manzanares River becomes intensely populated, leaving no space of expansion and adapted to the existing topography. The city grew under an irregular pattern, and the surrounding buildings attached to the castle's walls, completely closing the perimeter and preventing direct access to the fort.

The building, who served as the residency of the government of the Province of Cumaná, was completely abandoned when those duties were moved to another facilities. It was declared a Cultural and Municipal asset in May 2005 by the Cultural Assets Intitute.

Sources

• "Castillo Santa Maria de la Cabeza" (in Spanish). Oriente Web. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
  • "Con fecha 19 de noviembre de 1671, el gobernador en mención envió a su autoridades una carta, que entre otras cosas, dice …"Los zimientos de toda la fortificación son de profundidad devaxo de la tierra; los menos profundo de 16 pies geométricos; y por otra parte de mas de 24 codos geométricos"... " Y la superficie de la muralla tiene mas de 20.000 sillares labrados"... "Y lo demás restante de la muralla son caracolitos"..."
  • "Este monumento arquitectónico fue tomado como cuartel, siendo víctima de fuertes terremotos que sacudieron a la primogénita en el año 1684 y otro en el año 1797, le causan graves daños. Hoy en día su estructura se encuentra en ruinas"

• "Edificaciones Militares" (PDF) (in Spanish). Gobierno del Estado Sucre. Retrieved 3 January 2013.

• "Datos Sobre El Estado Sucre" (in Spanish). Medregal Village. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

• Redacción (23 August 2012). "Restauración de la iglesia de Santa Inés afianzará preservación de la historia en Sucre" (in Spanish). Venezuela al Día. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

• "Ruta Histórico Cultural" (in Spanish). GuiaViajesVirtual. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

• "Fuerte Santa María de la Cabeza ::: Cumaná" (in Spanish). ExpoSucre. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

• "Cumaná, Estado Sucre". Disfrute Venezuela (in Spanish). Portales Turísticos de Venezuela. Retrieved 7 January 2013. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)

• González Bruzual, Luis Gerardo (1 January 2008). "Memoria Fotográfica de la Ciudad de Cumaná / Iglesia de Santa Inés". Diario de Sucre (in Spanish). Centro UNESCO Amigos de la Herencia Cultural del Estado Sucre. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

• Audemard, Frank; Altez, Rogelio (August 2008). "El sismo de 1629 en cumaná: Aportes para una nueva historia sísmica del oriente venezolano". IMME (in Spanish). Vol. 46, no. 2. Venezuela: Scientific Electronic Library Online. p. 53-71. ISSN 0376-723X. Retrieved 7 January 2013.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Redacción (7 January 2006). "14 de Diciembre" (in Spanish). En Oriente. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

• Caulín, Antonio (1779). Juan de San Martin (ed.). Historia Coro-Graphica Natural y Evangelica de la Nueva Andalucia , Provincias de Cumana, Guayana y Vertientes del Rio Orinoco (in Spanish). Biblioteca Estatal de Baviera. p. 126. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

• Museo Mitre (1913). Documentos del Archivo de Belgrano (in Spanish). Vol. 2. Buenos Aires: Coni hermanos. p. 533. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

• Fuentes Bajo, María Dolores. "El Fenómeno Religioso En Las Ciudades Del Oriente Venezolano (1700-1810)" (PDF) (in Spanish). Universidad de Granada. p. 54.

• Instituto de Antropología e Historia (1964). Facultad de Humanidades y Educación (ed.). Anuario- Instituto de Antropología e Historia (in Spanish). Vol. 1, 2. Caracas: Universidad Central de Venezuela. p. 194,252. Retrieved 7 January 2013.

• Greenberg, Arnold (1997). "Venezuela Alive". Hunter Travel Guides (3 ed.). Hunter Publishing, Inc. p. 176. ISBN 9781556508004. Retrieved 7 January 2013.