"La Fuerza," the fort and barracks, is situated at the southeast corner of the city. According to an inscription over the gate it was built in the year 1783. Within its enclosure on a bluff at the place where the Ozama empties into the sea, rises the ancient citadel, the "Torre del Homenaje," "Tower of Homage" the enormously thick walls of which were erected not later than 1504. There are many who affirm that it was built before 1500, although the town was then situated on the other side of the river, and a cell with a small barred window is pointed out as the cell in which Bobadilla imprisoned Columbus before sending him to Spain in chains. Others claim that recently-discovered old foundation-walls on the east side of the river were the foundations of the building in which Columbus was confined. "In that case," Dominican wags observe, "the Tower of Homage is the place where he would have been confined if it had then been erected." In any event the tower and the terraces below it are the oldest fortifications constructed by white men in America. Cortez and Pizarro, Velazquez, Ponce de Leon, Narvaez and many others passed out of the Ozama River under the shadow of this building, full of hope for the future. Within its somber walls have been immured many an Indian chief in the time of the conquest and many a revolutionist in later days. The tower proper has been for years a political prison, while around the courtyard at its base on the riverside, is the common jail. The churches form an important connecting link between old and new Santo Domingo. Of these the most beautiful and imposing is the cathedral, built in what may be called Ibero-Romanesque style. As early as 1506 Ferdinand and Isabella ordered its erection, in 1512 a grant of revenue was made and two years later the work of construction was begun. In one of the chapels is a large rough-hewn mahogany cross on which is painted the legend: "This is the first sign planted in the center of this field to mark the beginning of this magnificent temple in the year MDXIV." The work progressed slowly; an inscription in the doorway leading to the plaza states that the church was completed to that point in 1527 and another inscription in the old choir, torn down in 1877, stated that the building was finished in 1540. It is probable that the original plans called for an even loftier building. One of the towers first projected was begun, but it was never concluded and the belfry is still a temporary one. Of late years there have been attempts to provide for the completion of this tower by popular subscription. The building has been damaged repeatedly by earthquakes and the repairs made have changed its original outer appearance on the plaza side. In its roof there is still lodged a cannon-ball fired into the city by a Spanish battery during the siege of 1809.