Congress on Fortified Heritage - ICOFORT
October 2016
Montevideo, Uruguay
The event promotes the disclosure that demonstrates the works which have been produced and may serve as a basis for the rescue, conservation and enhancement, at the same time providing space for reflection and the exchange of information regarding research, analysis, Management, Sustainability, Tourism, Conservation and Interpretation of Fortifications and Military Heritage.
The fortifications of Santa Teresa and San Miguel as well as the fortress “José Artigas” are considered as heritage landscape. The first two are located in Rocha at the east of Uruguay and close to the brazilian border.
These fortifications are an expression of the struggle of the Spanish and Portuguese empires over the border proceed for a century in the colonial period.
Both started by the Portuguese ( the fort of San Miguel in 1737 and the fortress of Santa Teresa in 1762 ) they were completed by the Spanish, going to their domain after the Treaty of San Ildefonso of 1777.
They were abandoned during the process of independence of Uruguay and restored in the decades of the 20s and 30s of the twentieth century habilitated as museums and focused on the parks that surround them which gives a conception of cultural landscape.
The third Fortification, “General Artigas” built in 1809, is located at the top of the hill (Cerro) of Montevideo west of the bay, constituting a characteristic landscape at the entrance of the Montevideo port.
All of them are located in strategical sites in order to protect the old colonial territory and were constructed following the morphology of the territory being now strategic points for cultural tourism and local development.
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