San Jerónimo Fort Walking Tour

Audio Guide Transcript: San Jerónimo Walking Tour 

Welcome to this Free Audio Guide to San Jerónimo Fort. FreeAudioGuides.com delivers the best and most immersive tours of your favorite travel destinations, in a podcast format, always free, with nothing to rent and no app to download. 

My name is Lara and my name is Armando, and we are your local guides. Today, we’re taking you and your family on an immersive audio experience through 500 years of history, with swashbuckling pirate attacks and heroic battles galore

You can do the tour at your own pace, but we estimate that at a normal walking clip it should take you about twenty minutes to get from site to site and enjoy the audio content we’ve prepared for each stop along the tour. 

We’ll start our walking tour where the bridges that connect Old San Juan to the Condado area and the Miramar area meet, specifically on the southeast corner of this intersection. To get you oriented, note that the Atlantic Ocean is to the north. Links to the suggested starting and ending points for this tour and a helpful map are in the episode description in your podcast app. 

Also note that we’ll play this sound ____ whenever we suggest you pause the podcast to make your way to the next location.

Be aware that we’ll be crossing a very busy intersection, so we recommend that you follow all traffic signals and proceed with caution.

As of the time this podcast was recorded, San Jerónimo fort is unfortunately closed for much needed repairs. But don’t fret, we’ve taken this closure into account in designing this guide and you can still get up close and personal with the fort and its historic surroundings

A local volunteer community group, the Friends of the San Jerónimo Fort, assists in its maintenance and upkeep. We’ve included a link to their page in the show notes should you want to donate to support their efforts. 

Once you’re done with this guide, check out our other podcast tours, at puertorico.freeaudioguides.com for locations like El Morro, San Cristobal Castle and the Puerto Rico Art Museum, and our weekly podcast, Puerto Rico Now, available on this same feed, where we’ll give you locals’ access to everything happening while you’re here visiting the island. Find out about the most exciting parties, festivals, free events, new restaurants and family-friendly gatherings going on right now, this very week, in Puerto Rico.

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Now, let’s get started!

While El Morro and San Cristobal in San Juan get all the glory, this area, and the two small forts that defended the crossing from the big island of Puerto Rico to the smaller island where the old colonial city sits, is where most of the military action actually took place. From here, you can clearly see one of those two smaller forts near the Caribe Hilton Hotel: San Jerónimo.

Where’s the second one you ask? The second fort was called San Antonio and it was actually part of the bridge of the same name that connected the Miramar area with Old San Juan. You’re now standing on a larger and more modern version of the old fortified San Antonio bridge. If you’re still at the starting point of the tour, you can see what remains of the bridge’s fortifications by looking below you at the spot where the bridge from Condado meets the bridge from Miramar. You’ll notice two embrasures, or openings, from which soldiers would have fired their cannons at enemies trying to cross into San Juan. 

The construction of the first bridge at this crossing began in 1520. Records show that by 1587 the bridge had been fortified and a second set of fortifications had been built where San Jerónimo stands today. It would not take on the name San Jerónimo until 1609.

Two of the English attacks on Puerto Rico, in 1598 and 1797, attempted to take the city by crossing here. This tactical choice was seen as preferable to sailing into San Juan bay which, owing to El Morro and other naval defenses, was considered a much deadlier alternative. 

Let’s take a very brief pause here so you can cross north over to the other side of the intersection. Again, please be very careful when crossing the intersection and respect all traffic signals. Once you’ve crossed the intersection, press play on your podcast app. 

Welcome back! The rest of the tour will be conducted in a pedestrian-only walkway. All you need to do is turn right at the first entrance you’ll see after crossing the intersection and then follow the path hugging the waterside until you get to the fort. You can enjoy the rest of this podcast tour as you walk and explore. 

Let’s first start by getting you up to speed on some important background information.

Puerto Rico had been inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples. At the time of Columbus’s arrival in 1493, during his second voyage to the Americas, the local population, known to history as Taínos, called the island Boriquén, loosely translated as "the lands of the valiant and noble lords”. The modern term for Puerto Ricans, “boricua”, is a derivative of the original, “Boriquén”.

The Spanish monarchs laid claim to the island and in 1508 granted Juan Ponce de León permission to explore and colonize the territory. In the ensuing decades, San Juan’s naturally well-protected bay became of strategic importance to Spanish transatlantic trade. Puerto Rico’s geographic location and access to fresh water made it the first good harbor for ships coming to the Americas from Europe after the months-long voyage. The trade winds, required to propel ships back and forth across the vast Atlantic, would naturally deposit  incoming vessels in its vicinity and sailors would disembark to resupply. 

This made Puerto Rico a hugely important asset in a complex network that defended the merchant fleet and its trade routes, and particularly the transportation to the Old World of gold, silver and gems extracted from Spain’s American colonies. All this treasure making its way around the Caribbean attracted… what else… pirates. Lots and lots of pirates.

San Juan’s fortifications were thus built to defend against the pirate threat and, crucially, against rival countries’ designs on the Caribbean. Late to the game, other European powers wanted to build their own New World empires, and Puerto Rico became an attractive piece in a high-stakes game to control American treasure. 

In 1595, the fort that then stood where San Jerónimo is today, first saw action against the Dread Pirate Francis Drake. 

We should note that the term “pirate” can be a bit misleading. It would seem to connote that those engaged in “piracy” acted completely outside the bounds of the law. However, some pirates were, more precisely, corsairs or privateers. These private individuals, as the name implies, were actually given a commission by a state to attack and capture the ships of an enemy state. Such was the case with Francis Drake, who plied the seas under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth the first of England.

Drake had been dispatched by the Queen to capture a Spanish treasure ship, the Begoña, that had suffered damage at sea as it embarked on the return voyage to Spain and was now in San Juan harbor for repairs. Drake had received news of the treasure from the captured passengers of a Spanish frigate. According to the main informant, a Portuguese man, the treasure was worth between two and three million pesos, or about 5 tons of gold and silver.

On November twenty second, 1595, Drake’s fleet was sighted and dropped anchor just north of the Condado Plaza Hotel visible across the water from here. Overconfident, Drake sat down to supper with his officers. Traveling with the famed seafarer was Thomas Maynarde, a relative of Drake’s by marriage, who wrote a narrative of the events that transpired. 

“The enemy labored by all means to cause us to disanchor. Within an hour he had planted three or four pieces of artillery upon the shore next to us. While our generals sat at supper, a shot came amongst them, wherewith Sir Nicholas Clifford, Brute Browne, Captain Stafford, and some standers by were hurt… Sir Nicholas died that night… Brown lived 5 or 6 days after and then died.”

Some accounts say Drake’s own stool was shot out from under him as he took a long swig from a large flagon of beer. It is believed that this famous shot was fired from the fortifications that then existed where San Jerónimo stands today. With its successful strike against Drake, the Spanish took to calling the fort, Matadiablo, or devil killer. 

Drake would later try to take San Juan by attacking the bay, but was repelled by Spanish defenders. The whole story is part of our FreeAudioGuides.com podcast tour of El Morro. 

Undeterred and wanting to avenge Drake’s defeat, the English tried again in 1598. The Queen sent the Earl of Cumberland to take San Juan. Traveling with him were men who had accompanied the old pirate in 1595, and so Cumberland was acutely aware of Drake’s tactical failures. His attack would avoid the harbor’s defenses and he instead planned on marching on San Juan by land.

On June the 16th, Cumberland landed about a thousand of his men on Condado beach and marched them to the fortified San Antonio bridge. On June the seventeenth, the English attempted to cross from the larger island by wading into the water adjacent the bridge, but were held back by the Spanish blasting them with five brass artillery pieces positioned on the “Matadiablo” fort.

According to Reverend Layfield, the chaplain of Cumberland’s fleet, the battle lasted for two hours. Cumberland was at some point in the melee in mortal danger. Layfield writes:

“His Lordship was in danger of drowning, for his armor so overburdened him, that the Sergeant Major that by chance was next to him had much ado to get him from under the water.”

Retreating to safety, Cumberland devised a new plan of attack. One of his ships would sail near the small Matadiablo fort and fire upon it. A group of fifty musketeers would also be disembarked on the rocks near the fort to attack the Spanish soldiers in close range and 200 pikemen would be landed farther inland to establish and defend a beachhead for the rest of the English soldiers. This plan worked. Within an hour, the Matadiablo had been silenced. 

Since there were scant other defenses to protect the approach on San Juan by land, Cumberland was able to take the city and, after a two week siege of El Morro, San Juan’s last remaining defenders, who had holed up in the fort, surrendered and marched out. 

The occupation would not last. Dysentery afflicted the English troops and in just weeks, 400 men would die and another 400 lay ill. By August, Cumberland had sailed off, unable to hold San Juan with so few men. 

After a second short-lived occupation of the city, this time by Dutch troops in 1625, the Spanish monarchy decided to strengthen San Juan’s defenses, particularly against an attack by land. The complex fortification system that was designed and implemented, known as defense-in-depth, would be put to the test in 1797 with the third and largest English attempt to take Puerto Rico. San Jerónimo and San Antonio, and the soldiers that manned both forts, would be the main protagonists of this battle. 

In February of 1797, an English fleet led by Admiral Henry Harvey, with General Ralph Abercromby at the head of the expedition’s ground forces, had taken Spanish-held Trinidad in a matter of a few days. Believing that Puerto Rico would be as easy a target, the English headed for the island and were first sighted on April 17, 1797. The next day, Abercromby disembarked 3,000 troops on present-day Isla Verde Beach. Planning to attack San Juan by land, he marched his men to the San Antonio bridge. 

In order to take San Juan, they would first have to silence the powerful cannons of both San Jerónimo and San Antonio forts. From the 21st to the 28th of April, British and Spanish cannons faced off across the short distance of water that separated the two enemies. 

To understand the scope of the battle, from here, look across the bridge to the billboards visible just past the intersection where we started the tour. At approximately that location, the British mounted their cannon.

However, try as they might, with many thousands of Puerto Ricans mobilized to protect their homeland alongside Spanish troops, and heavy cannon fire from the excellent defensive positions of the two small forts and even from as far afield as San Cristobal, the British lines were destroyed. 

Abercromby, reported on the attack in a letter to Great Britain’s War Secretary, referring to San Cristóbal by its name in English, St. Christopher:

“The only point on which we could attack the town was on the eastern side, where it is defended by the castle and lines of St. Christopher, to approach which it was necessary to force our way over the lagoon which forms this side of the island. This passage was strongly defended by two forts and gunboats, and the enemy had destroyed the bridge which connects the island with the mainland. After every effort on our part, we never could sufficiently silence the fire of the enemy.”

A final Spanish counterattack on the 29th and the 30th convinced Abercromby to pull back his troops, and by the first of May, the English had sailed off. You can learn more about this historic battle and about defense-in-depth by listening to our San Cristobal Castle podcast tour, available on this same feed. 

After this successful defense, San Juan’s forts and their guns would be idle for over 100 years. The silence was broken as dawn approached on the twelfth of May 1898.  A month earlier, the United States had declared war on Spain, and now an American fleet was bombing the old city. The outcome of this conflict, however, would be different, and the US would take Puerto Rico as part of the post-war settlement with Spain. 

We hope you’ve loved this audio guide as much as we loved putting it together for you. Remember there’s more content on this same podcast feed: more audio guides are up now, including tours for of Morro, San Cristóbal and the Puerto Rico Art Museum, and we’re putting new guides up all the time. There’s also Puerto Rico Now, updated every week, with insider tips to what you might be interested in doing while you’re here visiting. Finally, please remember to leave us a review and subscribe to the show on your podcast app of choice or, if you’d like, to leave your friendly guides a tip at puertorico.freeaudioguides.com. 

Until our next adventure together, enjoy your visit to Puerto Rico!

Sources and further reading

History of Puerto Rico: A Panorama of its People

Viejo San Juan: Historia Militar

The Forts of Old San Juan: Official National Park Handbook

El Lago de Piedra

Puerto Rico Then and Now

Special Resource Study: Fort San Gerónimo

Biblioteca Histórica de Puerto Rico

The Fortifications of San Juan National Historic Site

The Eighteenth Century Caribbean and the British Attack on Puerto Rico in 1797

Boletín Histórico de Puerto Rico, Vol. II

Hakluytus Posthumus Or Purchas His Pilgrimes, Vol. XVI

About John Layfield

About Sir Nicholas Clifford

Map of the English Attack on San Juan in 1797

Print of the English Siege of San Juan in 1797

Fuerte de San Jerónimo: Museo de Historia Militar y Naval de Puerto Rico, Institute of Puerto Rican Culture Brochure