For over three centuries, the «Way of the Spaniards» was the main route between Caracas and the sea. To protect it, the Spaniards fortified the port, controlled a single road, eliminating secondary routes, and built a defensive system that included, according to the 1791 map of Fermín de la Rueda: one castle, three forts, nine batteries, a gunpowder warehouse and four bastions. The first fort (1595), El Salto del Indio, was erected near Maiquetía after the pirate Amyas Preston (from Sir Walter Raleigh’s fleet) looted and burnt Caracas. There are only remains of Blanco fort, near La Cumbre and El Medio fort (1770), and of the Castillo Negro (so called for being painted with charcoal to make it less visible from the coast) there are only old walls. The fort of San Joaquín de la Cumbre stronghold (eighteenth century), 8 km from Puerta de Caracas, is perhaps the best preserved and has a square layout with half-bastions, unique in Venezuela. Most of the batteries and bastions have completely disappeared. Some of the forts like El Zamuro, San Agustín, El Vigía, San Carlos and the Gunpowder Barracks have undergone restorations by Graziano Gasparini. The defensive system remained vigilant of the Royal Road until, in 1845, the Catia road was inaugurated (former layout of the current old road), and the entire system of fortifications was abandoned.