Fort Nuestra de la Soledad, 1810

For 250 years beginning around 1565, Spanish galleons sailed yearly from Acapulco, Mexico, to Manila in the Philippines and back, with Umatac Bay serving as their only replenishment stop on the long voyage. From 1680 to 1810, the Spanish built four fortifications at Umatac to protect the anchorage from pirates and privateers. Governor Alexandro Parreno constructed the final Spanish fortification on Guam and the last of the four at Umatac, Fort Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, also called Our Lady of Solitude. Built of mamposteria on Mount Chalan Ahiti, it included a barbeta for mounting seven guns, quarters for soldiers, and an arsenal. Although the French explorer Freycinet noted the white fort and its four cannons in 1819, the galleons had already stopped calling at Guam after 1815 because political unrest in Mexico ended the Acapulco-Manila voyages. With its purpose gone, the fort was abandoned, then gradually crumbled through weather, treasure hunting, and World War II, before the Government of Guam turned it into a park after World War II.

Guam