Castillo San Felipe de Lara

 castle, military, listed building / architectural heritage

Early in the Sixteenth Century, trade was established between Guatemala and Spain via what was then called the Golfo Dulce. Constant attacks by pirates in the Gulf of Mexico and incursions into Guatemala through the Rio Dulce made it necessary to defend the entrance to Lake Izabal where warehouses had been set up for goods entering from or leaving for Spain.

1595 The Governor informed King Philip II of Spain of the attacks suffered and it was decided to build a tower equipped with twelve artillery pieces and twelve soldiers. The tower was called the Sande Tower.

1604 After the first tower was destroyed it was rebuilt by Captain Don Pedro de Bustamante, from whom it took its name, the Bustamante Tower. It was around this time that the port at Santo Tomas de Castilla was founded.