• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
  • 157 - inside Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

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: 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. And one of the best-known prisoners held here was Juan Pablo Duarte, one of the founding fathers of the Dominican Republic and leading figure in the War of Independence. However, he was controversial and ended up in exile. But today he is again revered as a martyr of the nation. 
  
Not too surprising then that the museum has an oil painting of the man in one corner next to a ceremonial Dominican flag. The information panels on his story are even bilingual (Spanish and English – though the translation into English could do with some polishing up!). And one panel has moments of Duarte's life represented in largely word-free graphic-novel style (for those who can read neither Spanish nor English?).
  
Other than seeing the small museum you can climb to the top of the central tower for good views of the bay and harbour of Puerto Plata and the mountainous backdrop of the city. Walking around the rest of the small fort you can see the fortified walls and little corner turrets from the inside, or marvel at a number of old cannons, a wooden chest and a set of barrels. That's it. Not worth specifically travelling for, perhaps, but worth a look when in the area. 
  
  
Location: on a headland north of Puerta Plata's harbour, overlooking the bay, roughly two thirds of a mile (1 km) from Parque Central in the heart of the city.
  
Google maps locator: [19.8041, -70.6957]
  
  
Access and costs: fairly easy; fairly cheap.
  
Details: To get to the fort from the centre of Puerto Plata you could theoretically walk it, but you can also drive up fairly close. At the time of my visit parking was a bit limited due to construction under way on the seafront, but my space was still only a five minute walk or so from the fort entrance. 
 
The entrance to the fort is on the south-eastern side, at the end of a path winding up the hill. The ticket office is right inside. 
  
Admission: 100 RD$ (including the audio-guide). 
  
Opening times: Tuesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  
  
Time required: not long. The audio-guide covering the inside of the museum has a running time of roughly 20 minutes or so … but I saw people not even staying that long in the museum – which is an indication of how exciting people find it (not very). Outside you may spend another 10-15 minutes, so in total you'll need only half an hour or a little more.  
  
  
Combinations with other dark destinations: see under Puerto Plata
  
  
Combinations with non-dark destinations: You can walk from the fort to the city centre of Puerto Plata – or drive part of the way, park by the old fire station (worth a look in itself!) and walk from there. Only five minutes or so and you get to the heart of the old town, the aptly named Parque Central. 
 
  
   
  • Fortaleza San Felipe 1 - ancient structureFortaleza San Felipe 1 - ancient structure
  • Fortaleza San Felipe 2 - massive wallsFortaleza San Felipe 2 - massive walls
  • Fortaleza San Felipe 3 - central towerFortaleza San Felipe 3 - central tower
  • Fortaleza San Felipe 4 - insideFortaleza San Felipe 4 - inside
  • Fortaleza San Felipe 5 - small museumFortaleza San Felipe 5 - small museum
  • Fortaleza San Felipe 6 - old exhibitsFortaleza San Felipe 6 - old exhibits
  • Fortaleza San Felipe 7 - old shellsFortaleza San Felipe 7 - old shells
  • Fortaleza San Felipe 8 - wooden chestFortaleza San Felipe 8 - wooden chest
  • Fortaleza San Felipe 9 - cannonFortaleza San Felipe 9 - cannon
 
   
  
  
  
  

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