Its true name is the Castle of San Pedro de la Roca and it is situated on a promontory, at the entrance of the historical bay of the town of Santiago de Cuba.

Its strategic location rendered it the chief defense point of the city in the face of maritime attack. It was designed by Italian military engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli, the very same who had earlier overseen the construction of the Morro Castle in Havana.

Its construction is owed to the fact that by the XVII century the upsurge in corsairs and pirates in the Caribbean had so grown that it lead the then monarch of Spain to fortify his colonies so as to defend them from foreign assaults.

Houses since 1978 the Museum of Piracy.