Real Felipe Fortress

History:
The Fortress of Real Felipe is a military building that was built during the administration of the
viceroys José Manso de Velasco and Manuel de Amat.
Its creation was impelled after the destruction of the port of Callao during the devastating
earthquake of October 28 in 1746.
This fact convinced the viceregal authorities to build a stronger and stronger defense than a
simple wall to protect the city of Lima from the attacks of pirates and thieves.
The main construction took 29 years and its cost was three million pesos of the time.
The stones used for its construction were brought from San Lorenzo Island, but also from
Panama and Spain.

It is currently a museum that is in charge of the Army of Peru, and among its monuments we
can find:

The Door of the Forgiveness, which was used in the year 1825 by the deserters who passed to
the patriot side.

The Knight of the Twelve Cannons, which was an impenetrable fort in case of the occupation of
the attacker.

The House of the Governor, which was the place of accommodation of the chief of the military
of the plaza. The shields of the kings of Spain were carved on its front.

Today there are exhibited weapons from different periods from the Inca, through the precursors
and heroes of the Independence of Peru.

There are also the two towers, considered small fortresses within the infrastructure.

On one side is the Tower of the Queen, equipped with ammunition, supplies and even a water
well and semicircular dungeon.

Also El Torreón del Rey, which is accounted for by the levels, in two of which there are
platforms with canyons. The interior was a road that possessed everything necessary to repel an
attack.

The sentinels and guides of the fort tell several stories, some more famous than others. Like a
woman in a white dress, who appears at midnight at the door of the king's castle, singing, crying
and lamenting. The woman seems to levitate, and is one of the most frequent appearances.
Those who do the nightly rounds feel blows, dizziness, feel that they walk and do not move, that
the walls suffocate them and absorb their energy.

Laments, cries, gunshots, heartrending cries and chants.

A girl plays among the showcases of the museum, some leave candies affectionately that at
daybreak have disappeared. It is the most beloved ghost of the fortress

The dungeons are another very ornate part. Dungeons in which they crowded up to 60 men in
subhuman conditions and brutal punishments, and now the cries and cries of that horrible time
are repeated.

Others are not so tender, and it causes horror and despair in sight. Some soldiers have
committed suicide by the terror of some apparition or have lost their reason.

Stone of the devil

A large stone with a circle inside is the protagonist of a popular legend in Lima, Peru. Located
in the upper neighborhoods, exactly at the intersection of Jirón Junín and Jirón Cangallo, there
is La Piedra del Diablo.

Its origin is strange, there is no one who knows, how the stone appeared in this place. It is
composed of feldspar and quartz, its age is several tens of thousands of years, black and one
meter high
That the Devil wandered through the Barrios Altos de Lima, when he saw a procession of the
Virgen del Carmen (very venerated in Lima and more than 300 years old) coming, he turned
around trying to flee, but when he turned around he found the procession of the Lord of
Miracles. Faced with such a show of faith and seeing himself cornered, he stumbled over the
stone and made a hole for it, thus escaping to the other street with a sigh of relief that all Lima
could hear. Since then, those streets were named Peña Horadada Street and Suspiro Street,
although today they no longer have that name.
It is said that there was a time when the stone disappeared from its place. And then very strange
things started to happen in the Barrios Altos. But alone it appeared again returning the
tranquility.