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Fort Jesus

Fort Jesus

Giovanni Battista Cairati

Photo: Maingi030 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Mombasa Island, Mombasa, Kenya
Client / Owner
Philip II of Spain
Year
Completed 1596
Access
Tickets required

Fort Jesus on Mombasa Island, Kenya, was designed by Giovanni Battista Cairati, inspired by Pietro Cataneo, with Gaspar Rodrigues as master builder. King Felipe II of Spain, also Filipe I of Portugal, was the client. Construction ran from 1593 to 1596. The article calls it a masterpiece of late Renaissance military fortification.

The article gives no materials, though local Swahili people reportedly supplied masonry techniques, materials and labor. The walls are 59 feet (18 m) high, originally 49 feet (15 m), and the site covers 2.36 hectares (5.8 acres).

The fort was captured and recaptured repeatedly from 1631. An Omani siege ran from 1696 to 1698, or almost three years in another passage. The British used it as a prison from 1895. It became a national museum in 1958, and UNESCO listed it in 2011. The article gives no hours or ticket details.

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