La Contaduría Fort

Perched atop Cerro de la Contaduría, a hill overlooking the port of San Blas, La Contaduría Fort was built by Spanish colonial authorities in the second half of the 18th century to defend Nayarit's Pacific coastline and the treasury office (contaduría) that once operated on the same hill. San Blas served as New Spain's principal naval base and shipyard on the Pacific from 1768 onward, launching expeditions that charted the coast as far north as Alaska, and the fort's cannon emplacements and stone ramparts protected the harbor, the customs house, and the silver shipments that passed through the port from raids by foreign privateers. The surviving structure consists of thick masonry walls, a battery platform still holding several iron cannons, and the ruined foundations of the counting house and barracks that once stood alongside it. Visitors climb a cobbled path past the ruins of the old Cerro de San Basilio church to reach the summit, where the fortifications open onto a wide platform with views over the Marismas Nacionales wetlands, the San Blas estuary, and the Pacific Ocean. The site is unrestored and largely left as a stabilized ruin rather than a reconstructed monument, with informational signage in Spanish describing the fort's role in colonial maritime defense. Preservation work by INAH has focused on consolidating the remaining walls and cannon platforms rather than rebuilding missing sections, so much of the fort's layout must be traced from foundation lines. The hilltop is also tied to San Blas's association with poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, whose poem "The Bells of San Blas" refers to the church bells once rung from this same promontory.