Fortaleza San Felipe

Fortaleza San Felipe - darkometer rating : 1 - A minor dark site in the city of Puerto Plata on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic . This coastal fort, which was built by the Spanish in the mid-16th century and is the oldest surviving structure far and wide, is mentioned here only because of its link to the Trujillo regime (see under Dominican history !) and in particular the Mirabal sisters. Their husbands were incarcerated in the fortress and after they had visited them on 25 November 1960, the sisters were on their way home when their car was ambushed at La Cumbre and the Mirabal sisters murdered – see Mirabal House . > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos What there is to see: not actually that much. From the outside the fort may be somewhat impressive as an old fortified pile as such, but not in any particular dark way. You can go inside, and for foreign visitors there are now even audio-guides available in English or French. The central tower of the fort houses a small museum of sorts. On display are old rusty weapons and cannon shells, old coins, as well as various text and photo panels. But none of this even remotely touches on the role the fort played in the Trujillo era, namely as a dungeon to incarcerate and torture political prisoners (including the Mirabal sisters' husbands – see Mirabal House ). Instead it's all solely about the old history of the fort, Puerto Plata and the Dominican Republic in general. The only vaguely dark aspect that is mentioned is the fact that the fort had been used as a jail long before.