A Gorgeous Standing Sentinel

The historic Fort George sits atop a mountain peak overlooking the Capital City of Port of Spain and is rich in history as well as in beauty! I have been meaning to visit this breathtaking location at sunset for a while and I finally did it! Sunsets atop mountain peaks overlooking cities just has this amazing magical sense of wonder and beauty that I just cannot explain. Today we explore what the fort has to offer as well as the beautiful view that it is most famous for, panoramic views of most of the island!

I just had to get some aerial shots of the whole compound first and especially of the amazing white building fashioned according to the colonial contemporary styles at the time. It has been marvelously preserved! With this photo above, you can use it as a sort of map and so now, mentally you have an idea of where we are at in each part of this article to some degree.

Even the car park was filled with breathtaking views! I was taken aback as well pulled into the lot and chose a space. On one side was another verdant mountain peak covered in lush tropical rainforest being bathed by golden sunlight while the other smacked you in the face with such a magnificent view of the city and its surroundings that I was almost speechless! We had not yet even reached the fort itself and already we were being spoilt with such sights!

I went to the edge of the carpark and took the shot above to get rid of the trees that was blocking some of the view. The scene was so amazing as the setting sun made the city look so dreamy. Cool and refreshing winds were quite forceful but made me feel so relaxed! There were no sounds of the hustle and bustle of the metropolis due to distance which made it feel even more serene. The buildings and skyscrapers looks so small as well!

There was a walkway that goes around the while fort just at the bottom of it all which starts at the carpark so we will start our virtual tour here. This is what it looks like with lawn covered hill of the right and the view of the city and the ocean on the left.

There were lots of benches to sit, eat and enjoy the view, take in all the serenity and peace. This is why I love coming here for sunsets, there is just no place like it for this time of day, especially if you want to escape the troubles of the world and make them feel small!

Eventually you get to a point where the white house comes into view with some canons and other parts of the compound. You can get a better idea where of how the fort is elevated and leveled in tiers of walkways with benches and so on.

The photo above was taken when I turned around and took a photo of people at the canons at the top right!

There were also people using the lookout binoculars near the house as well!

I got some more shots of the walkways before deciding to ascend the hill to the main fort area. The above shot is the magnificent south western view of the Gulf of Paria! The previous views were of the southern parts of the island which is basically the majority of the land mass

I finally got to the top of the stairs after obsessing over the views around the fort. Now it is time to explore the solitary white beautiful house! The house is known as one of the magnificent seven, a collection of colonial era houses built by the British that convey the style of the architecture of the time at its best, preserved by the ministry in our country and upkept for historical reasons.

In times of war the opulence of the city of Port of Spain would store their records, cash and valuables in this building as the fort was considered to be one of the most invulnerable. I quite loved the window shutters, the lamos and the grand eve designs that echoed the colonial past! It was quite small but managed to feel large in sentiment and historical significance!

Next to the building was the fort's dungeon and jail cell area! This was quite interesting and seemed to be built into the rock of the hill with archaic bricks that were the same as they day it was constructed so long ago!

This was so cool as you got to see all of the interior that was well lit and displayed. You had to stand on a pedestal at to peer in between the jail cell bars. I managed to put the lens up close to them so that they did not obstruct the view. Inside we could see the jail cell, rudimentary beds and various torture and restraining devices! It all looked so ominous!

Next up were the canons that the fort was most famous for! I was told that these were the actual canons that were used and they faced and protected a large part of the western coastline as you can see from the photo above.

The view was just amazing and it was so much fun pretending to fire at ships so far out in the ocean! I did not know that canons would have been able to fire at such a range from upon a fort such as this! Image being in the city down below being invaded and canons boomed while munitions flew over your head!

I noticed that there was an area above the jail cell that you could stand upon and decided to look for the stairway that would lead me up to that area. It was quite hard to find and I ended up walking all the way around just to get to them!

I managed to find them near the washrooms funnily enough!

It seemed to be an area with a bench as as where the flags were flown. There was also a solitary canon in the middle that was much small than the rest, I wonder how it differed from the others, may a different type of munition or something of the sort. I imagined that it was blank fired during flag ceremonies and so on maybe to commemorate deaths of officers!

I then moved to the western side of the fort in front of the house that gave you a magnificent view of the western parts of the country.

There were more canons here on this side as well!

This solitary one faced due west exactly where the sun was setting amidst the mountains on that side.The view on this side was just as amazing as the others and was soon to be even more so when the sun would begin to set between the mountain peaks.

Here is an even better view of the mountain peaks as well as that of the town on this side known as West Moorings. You can also see Chaguaramas lower down the coastline which we had done articles on many times before with its many amazing locations!

As the sun began to reach the horizon, the colors and hues intensified and gave way to golden rays that bathed the mountains and valleys as well as the fort itself. I cannot begin to describe to you how magnificent that looked and how it made me feel! The photos do no justice but they still came out amazing in my opinion! The photo above is of the town of Diego Martin, usually hidden from view as it is nestled in a valley but the where we were, we could see ALL of it!

Sunsets at Fort George has to have been my favorite thing to have been lucky to experience for the whole year so far! It was tranquil and made all the troubles of the world seem so small and far away as we were so high up! The panoramic views complement all this to provide such an almost spiritual experience! Thanks a lot for coming along the virtual tour! Cheers!