Fuerte de San Jose el Alto

Finished in 1792 as the northern counterpart to Fuerte de San Miguel, this compact hilltop fort was built to watch the coastal approach to Campeche from the direction of Merida and to complete the outer ring of hilltop defences that supplemented the city's wall circuit. Like San Miguel it retains its dry moat, drawbridge, an on-site chapel and gun platforms largely intact, giving both forts a similar late-18th-century military character even though San Jose el Alto is smaller in scale. Since the fort's guns, like those at San Miguel, saw little or no combat use, its later role shifted toward storage and, eventually, museum use once the site was restored in the 20th century. It now holds the Museo de Arqueologia Subacuatica, the only underwater archaeology museum in the region, whose collection was recovered from Spanish-era shipwrecks on the Campeche Bank, the shallow shelf offshore that claimed numerous vessels of the colonial treasure fleets over three centuries of navigation. The museum's galleries occupy the fort's casemates and lead out onto its gun platforms, which give views over the northern approach to the city that the fort was built to guard. Restoration preserved the moat and drawbridge mechanism while converting interior chambers into display spaces without altering the fort's exterior profile.