Other sights in San Juan
- Sort by:
- Popular
-
A
Art Gallery
Poised against the outside wall of the city is La Princesa which now houses an art gallery with welcome air-conditioning and frequently changing shows by first-rate island artists.
reviewed
-
Museum
Housed in the 18th-century Casa de los Contrafuertes (House of Buttresses) on the Plaza de San José, the compact museum displays masks, sculptures, musical instruments, documents and prints that highlight Puerto Rico’s connections to West Africa. One exhibit recreates living conditions in a slave ship.
reviewed
-
Cuartel
Built in 1854 as a military barracks, the cuartel is a three-story edifice with large gates on two ends, ample balconies, a series of arches and a protected central courtyard that served as a plaza and covers a reservoir. It was the last and largest building constructed by the Spaniards in the New World. Facilities included officer quarters, warehouses, kitchens, dining rooms, prison cells and stables.
reviewed
-
B
Museo de Casals
On Plaza de San José is the Museo de Casals. A native of Spain’s proud but repressed province of Catalonia, world-famous cellist Pablo Casals moved to his mother’s homeland of Puerto Rico in 1956 to protest the dictatorial regime of Francisco Franco in Spain. He quickly established the respected Festival Casals for classical music, which became a principal force in the subsequent flowering of the arts on the island.
reviewed
-
C
Puerta de Tierra
Less than 2 miles in length and only one-quarter of a mile broad, this district occupies the lowland, filling the rest of the area that was colonial San Juan. Puerta de Tierra takes its name from its position as the 'gateway of land' leading up to the walls of Old San Juan, which was the favored route of land attack by waves of English and Dutch invaders. For centuries, Puerta de Tierra was a slum much like La Perla, although far less picturesque.
It was a place where free blacks and multiracial people lived, excluded from the protection of the walled city where the Spaniards and criollos (islanders of European decent) postured like European gentry and maneuvered for…
reviewed
-
Corporación Piñones Se Integra
The Corporación Piñones Se Integra is a community based nonprofit organization that is involved in improving the facilities in Puerto Rico’s poorer barrios, particularly Loíza. Concurrently, they are working hard to keep the island’s traditional Afro-Caribbean culture alive. Headquartered in the Centro Cultural Ecoturístico de Piñones situated to the right of Rte 187 immediately after you cross the bridge at Boca de Cangrejos, the organization promotes some of Puerto Rico’s best bomba y plena performances at its on-site Café El Búho at 9pm on the second and last Friday of each month. You can also arrange traditional dancing and percussion lessons here (phone…
reviewed