The Bulwark of La Merced

The Bulwark of La Merced, so called because of the proximity to the convent of the same name that existed where the Adolfo Mejía Theater currently stands, was one of the sections most affected by the cyclical storms that swept […]

The Bulwark of La Merced, so called because of the proximity to the convent of the same name that existed where the Adolfo Mejía Theater currently stands, was one of the sections most affected by the cyclical storms that swept the city. Constructed by the engineer Cristóbal de Roda about 1617, it would be destroyed by a ”northener” in 1618; eleven years later, at the end of the year 1629, the reconstruction ordered by the governor and engineer Francisco de Murga was completed.

During the XVII and XVIII centuries the repairs to the Bulwark of La Merced were constant, without obtaining a solution to mitigate the force of the sea in this section. It would be the engineer Juan de Herrera y Sotomayor who, between 1721 and 1733, would restore the bulwark, giving it its current form.