Fortaleza San Felipe stands on a low headland at the western end of the Malecón, its thick coral-stone walls facing the sea as they have since 1564. The Spanish built it as Puerto Plata grew into one of the most important ports on Hispaniola, and the fort was designed specifically to discourage the French and English pirates who regularly raided Caribbean harbours. The walls are up to two metres thick, and the cannon emplacements — a dozen old pieces still point seaward — were positioned to command the approaches from the north and west.
The interior has been converted into a small museum covering the fort's history from its construction through the colonial period to the 19th-century wars of independence. The displays are in Spanish, but the fort itself is legible without a guide: you can walk the ramparts, peer down into the old dry moat, and get a clear sense of how a garrison of perhaps 50 soldiers was supposed to hold off a naval assault. The views from the top of the walls take in the harbour, the Malecón stretching east, and the mountains behind the city. Entry is inexpensive and the fort is rarely crowded.