3 Best Sights in The Lake District, Chile

Across the estuary from the Fuerte de Niebla is this large and well-preserved fort from 1645. In the January through February summer season, historic reenactments of Spanish military maneuvers take place daily at 4 and 6. To get there, you need to rent a small boat, which costs only about 1,000 pesos at the marina near Fuerte de Niebla.

To protect the all-important city of Valdivia, the Spanish constructed a series of strategic fortresses at Niebla, where the Valdivia and Tornagaleones rivers meet. Portions of the 1671 Fuerte de Niebla and its 18 cannons have been restored. The ground on which the cannons sit is unstable; you can view them from the ramparts above. The old commander's house serves as a small museum documenting the era's military history.

Just south of the Centro Cultural El Austral lies one of two fortress towers constructed in 1774 to defend Valdivia from constant attacks by the Mapuche. Both towers—the other sits on Avenida Picarte between the bus terminal and the bridge entering the city over the Río Calle-Calle—were built in the style of those that guarded the coasts of Andalusia, in southern Spain. A wall and moat connected the two Valdivia towers in the colonial era, effectively turning the city into an island.