A monument to Cebu’s turbulent past, the Fort San Pedro in Cebu City served different purposes at various times in the island’s history.

The fort began as a single triangular bastion when it was first built with logs and mud in 1565, with Spanish

conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi breaking ground for the structure. It served as the nucleus of the first

Spanish settlement in the Philippines.

Marker on the wall near the entrance to Fort San Pedro.

The fort was turned over to Cebuanos by American Commodore George Dewey after the decisive Battle of Manila

 Bay, which happened on May 1, 1898 or a few days after war was declared between Spain and the United States.

One of the cannons that line the battlement of the Fort San Pedro in Cebu City.

Fort San Pedro is the oldest and smallest fort in the Philippines. Built by the Spaniards to repel sieges by hostile

 natives and Muslim pirates, the fort was deemed finished in 1738, some 200 years after it started construction.

The Cebu Garden Club took over and turned the inner part of the fort into a miniature garden in 1950 while its upper

 deck served as offices for government agencies. The fort courtyard was used as a zoo in 1957.

In ruins and with only its two towers recognizable in 1968, the fort underwent restoration. Coral stones from under the seas of Cebu’s coastal towns were used to restore the fort to make it as close to the original as possible.

Fort San Pedro is now a museum-park where Spanish artifacts, documents, paintings, sculptures, sword fragments, cannons, and helmets and Ming porcelain pieces of various sizes are displayed.

Visitors pay a nominal 10-peso fee to enter the tourism landmark. The fort is located in Barangay San Roque in Cebu City. In front of the fort is another city landmark, the Plaza Independencia, and to its side is the Cebu Central Post

Office, which is near Pier 1.

Entrance to the Fort San Pedro in Cebu City, oldest tri-bastion fort in the Philippines.

The fort’s name was taken from Legaspi’s flagship “San Pedro” in which he sailed the Pacific Ocean in 1565. Little

was known about the fort from its construction in 1565 until it was mentioned in 1739 in an official report to King

Philip II of Spain.

In the report, the fort–Fuerza San Pedro–was described as triangular in shape, made of stone and mortar, and with

three bastions named La Concepcion, (southwest side), Ignacio de Loyola (southeast), and San Miguel (northeast).

The structure was also described as having a total area of 2,025 square meters, with walls that are 20 feet high and

eight feet thick, and towers that rise 30 feet from the ground.

Over the centuries, the fort had many uses.

It became a prison for local rebels during the Philippine revolution from 1896 to 1898.

A structure on top of Fort San Pedro has been converted into a museum.

An outpost on one corner of the triangular Fort San Pedro in Cebu City.

The report also told of a large building called the “Cuerpor de Guardia”, where personnel that manned the fort lived;

a “Vivende del Teniente”, the sleeping quarters of the fort lieutenant; a well; and a powder magazine that served as

 storage for the fort’s arms and gunpowder supply.

The view from the top of the Fort San Pedro in Cebu, oldest tri-bastion fort in the Philippines.

The high walls of Fort San Pedro, which was built by the Spaniards to repel Muslim invaders. Spanish conquistador

 Miguel Lopez de Legaspi did the ground breaking of the fort himself.