Fort Basilio (La Contaduría)

Ruined colonial fort above the river mouth where the church bells of Longfellow's poem once rang

Fort Basilio — also known as La Contaduría (the accountant's house) — stands on a hill above the mouth of the San Blas River, reached by a short steep path from the town centre. The fortifications were built in the 18th century when San Blas was an important Pacific port and naval base; at its peak the town was the major departure point for Spanish expeditions to California and the Pacific Northwest.

The fort is now a romantic ruin, its stone walls draped in tropical vegetation and its cannons still pointing seaward. The small church of La Marinera stands within the ruins. From the top of the hill you can see the river mouth, the Pacific, the mangrove estuary, and the red-tiled roofs of the town below. The climb takes about ten minutes and is best done in the morning or late afternoon to avoid the midday heat.

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A story
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1882 poem "The Bells of San Blas" was inspired by accounts of this fort's bells tolling as the town's colonial significance faded. The poem mourns a lost era: "What say the Bells of San Blas / To the ships that southward pass / From the harbour of Mazatlan?" The bells Longfellow imagined are gone, but the crumbling walls remain.