The design of the city, which formerly was called San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo, was done by Pedro Millán.

The blocks were done according to the Indians Laws and in recto angles.

The city was surrounded by a fortress.

The Citadel of Montevideo

The citadel that took 40 years to be built, was a great fortress of stones which included an army square surrounded by thick wall which had in each of its corners tall towers where it was possible to put the powerful army.

It was surrounded by a big and deep fosse that could be filled in with water from the river and then a bridge was used to cross to the city.

Nowadays, it is only possible to see part of the wall, close to one of the sides of Solis Theatre.

Underground, there are still but closed, the tunnels which communicated the Citadel to the closest buildings.

The colonial arquitecture of those times is kept in some of the constructions of the Old City and were taken from the neo-classical Spanish style of those times.

Montevideo was the seat of the Spanish political power with a society divided in races and classes. Businessman, moneylenders, absent landowners, high government staff, were part of the high class which still had something from its humble descendant who were canaries, Basque and Catalonian.

The medium class was integrated by, militars and government staff of minor grade, craftsmen, shopkeepers, etc.

In the last place was the black and slave population.

Our first Constitution was sweard in 1830 setting the base of our actual political system which consists of 3 independent powers: Executive, Legislative and Judicial.