Sant Ferran Fortress Figueres largest bastioned fortress in Europe
Vast 1753 fortress that housed up to 6000 troops. Upon ceasing to be a prison in 1997 it opened as a museum. Special visits to the large underground cistern.
About Figueres Sant Ferran Fortress
The greatest monument in Catalunya is also the largest bastioned fortress in Europe. The Castle of Sant Ferran (Castillo san Fernando) occupies an area of 550,000 square metres at the top of the hill of Figueres. As a frontier Castle, the location is unbeatable: It has good views of the Serra de la Albera, which creates the border with France, and the Gulf of Roses.
Undoubtedly it was constructed to meet the need to reinforce the border after the Peace of the Pyrenees of 1659 and owes its name to King Ferran VI (Ferdinand VI). The fortification, started in 1766 and completed in 1892, consists of two enclosures.
The interior, of more than 325,000 m2, consists of six bastions connected by stretches of wall. The size of the buildings cannot go unnoticed: stables with capacity for 500 horses, warehouses to store food for 10,000 people for a year, the main square, new pavilions for the accommodation of the officers and their families, and four big cisterns with a total capacity of nine million litres of water.
The exterior enclosure, with a perimeter of 3,120 metres, made up of three horn works, seven ravelins and two counterguards. It is separated from the outside by a large moat of 10 hectares, which can currently be visited, including the underground galleries.
From May 1940 to December 1942, The Francoist regime used the castle as a concentration camp where returned republicans from France were held. During the Franco Era the castle was used as a prison for citizens against the franciost regime and those that promoted democratic elections. From 1956 it became exclusively a military prison until 1991.
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