Galeras Fort, locally known as Fuerte de Galeras, lies on a mountain next to the city of Cartagena. Plans to fortify this, 219 meter high, mountain date back to the 16th century. Galeras Fort however was built between the mid-18th century and 1777 by the Croatian military engineer Mateo Wodopich. It was designed by the military engineer Pedro Martín-Paredes Cermeño in the style of eclectic Neoclassicism according to the principles of the Frenchified Spanish School. It had to guard the Military Arsenal of Cartagena and was connected to the city walls. It is situated on a mountain between Atalaya Fort to the north and the Fajardo Battery to the south.
The quadrangular fort saw action during both the Peninsular War, between 1808-1814, and the Cantonal Revolution in 1873-74. In the 20th century it gradually lost its military importance but still served as a military prison.
References:The Château du Haut-Koenigsbourg is situated in a strategic area on a rocky spur overlooking the Upper Rhine Plain, it was used by successive powers from the Middle Ages until the Thirty Years' War when it was abandoned. From 1900 to 1908 it was rebuilt at the behest of the German kaiser Wilhelm II. Today it is a major tourist site, attracting more than 500,000 visitors a year.
The first records of a castle built by the Hohenstaufens date back to 1147. The fortress changed its name to Koenigsburg (royal castle) around 1157. The castle was handed over to the Tiersteins by the Habsburgs following its destruction in 1462. They rebuilt and enlarged it, installing a defensive system designed to withstand artillery fire.
The fortification work accomplished over the 15th century did not suffice to keep the Swedish artillery at bay during the Thirty Years War, and the defences were overrun.