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Museo de Antropología, Historia y Arte
The small but quite engaging Museo de Antropología, Historia y Arte displays anthropology, history and art is worth a stop to see examples of the trove of Taíno Indian artifacts unearthed by university scholars in recent digs. In addition, this museum features revolving art shows and offers scholarly perspectives on island history.
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Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico
Another recent recipient of the makeover brush, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico sits just down the road from the Museo de Arte in a similarly eye-catching classical Georgian building - the former Rafael M Labra school - dating from 1918. The museum displays art from the mid-20th century onwards and showcases artists from Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and Latin America.
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Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico
The Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico opened in 2000 and rapidly inserted itself as a important nexus in the capital's vibrant cultural life. Housed in a splendid neoclassical building that was once the city's Municipal Hospital, MAPR is located in the city's revived Santurce district and boasts 18 exhibition halls spread over an area of 130,000 sq ft.
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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. If you loved the man, you'll love the museum.
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Museo de las Américas
Museo de las Américas is on the second floor of the three-storey Cuartel de Ballajá & Museo de las Américas (M005B), built in 1854 as a military barracks. The museum gives an overview of cultural development in the New World.
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Museo de Nuestras Raices Africanas
Housed in the 18th-century Casa de los Contrafuertes (House of Buttresses) on the Plaza de San José, the compact Museo de Nuestras Raices Africanas 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.
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Museo de San Juan
Located in a Spanish colonial building at the corner of Calle MacArthur, the Museo de San Juan is the definitive take of the city's 500-year history. The well laid out exhibition showcases pictorial and photographic testimonies from the Caparra ruins to the modern-day shopping malls. There's also a half-hour TV documentary about the history of San Juan (in both Spanish and English).
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Museo del Niño
The pink and green building that sits on the edge of a small, shady park houses the Museo del Niño. Kids love these hands-on exhibits - particular favorites include the short-wave radio display that lets them talk with children in other countries, the miniature town touting the benefits of recycling and a tour through the human heart.
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Museo Felisa Rincón de Gautier
This Museo Felisa Rincón de Gautier is an attractive neoclassical town house that was once the long-time home of San Juan's beloved mayor, Doña Felisa. She presided over the growth of her city with personal style and political acumen for more than 20 years during the Operation Bootstrap days of the 1940s, '50s and '60s. This historic home is a monument to the life of an accomplished public servant.
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Parque de las Palomas
Parque de las Palomas on the lower end of Calle del Cristo is a cobblestone courtyard shaded with trees at the top of the city wall. Paloma means 'dove' or 'pigeon' in Spanish and it's the latter variety you'll encounter here, in their hundreds. Some brave souls come here for the view it affords of Bahía de San Juan. Others just turn up to feed the pigeons. (You can buy birdseed from a vendor by the gate.)
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Parque Muñoz Rivera
Spanning half the width of Puerta de Tierra between the Atlantic and Av Ponce de León, this green space, known as Parque Muñoz Rivera, dates back over 50 years and injects some much needed breathing space into the surrounding urbanity. It has shade trees, trails, a kid's playground, and a 'Peace Pavilion', which sometimes hosts community events. An artisans' fair is held here and at the adjacent Parque Sixto Escobar on most weekends.
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Paseo de la Princesa
Emanating a rather distinctly European flavor, the Paseo de la Princesa is a 19th-century esplanade situated just outside the city walls. Lined with antique street lamps, shade trees, statues, benches, fruit vendors' carts and street entertainers, this romantic walkway culminates at the magnificent Raíces Fountain, a stunning statue/water feature that depicts the island's eclectic Taíno, African and Spanish heritage.
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Playa Isla Verde
Resort pluggers will tell you that Playa Isla Verde is the Copacabana of Puerto Rico with its legions of tan bodies and dexterous beach bums flexing their triceps around the volleyball net. Other more savvy travelers prefer to dodge the extended families and colonizing spring-break hedonists that stake space here and head west to Ocean Park. Whatever your subjective view, this broad mile-long wedge of sand that lies between Punta Las Marías and Piñones is an undeniable beauty.
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Plaza de Armas
Follow Calle San Francisco into the heart of the old city and it opens on to the Plaza de Armas. This is the city's nominal 'central' square, laid out in the 16th century with the classic look of plazas from Madrid and Mexico. In its time, the plaza has served as a military parade ground (hence its name), a vegetable market and a social center.
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Plaza de Colón
Tracing its roots back more than a century to the 400-year anniversary of the first Columbus expedition, the Plaza de Colón lies across the street from the lower part of Fuerte San Cristóbal. The city wall on this end of Old San Juan was torn down in 1897, and the plaza, with its statue of the 'Discoverer' atop a pillar, stands on the site of one of the city's original gated entries, Puerta Santiago.
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Plaza de San José
Adjacent to the uppermost terrace of the Plaza del Quinto Centenario, where it meets Calle San Sebastián, is the Plaza de San José. This relatively small cobblestone plaza is dominated by a statue of Juan Ponce de León, cast from an English cannon captured in the raid of 1797. The plaza is probably the highest point in this city and serves as a threshold to four cultural sites on its perimeter. The neighborhood around the plaza, on San Sebastián and the intersecting Calle del Cristo, is the original home of the restaurant, bar and café scene that began in Old San Juan more than a decade ago.
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Plaza del Quinto Centenario
It's surprising to find such a modern square shoehorned in among all the architectural antiques, but the small Plaza del Quinto Centenario was built in 1992 to honor the 500-year anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas.
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Plazuela de la Rogativa
This tiny gem of a park, the Plazuela de la Rogativa, has lovely vistas overlooking the bay and is home to a whimsical bronze sculpture of the bishop of San Juan and three women bearing torches.
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Puerta de San Juan
Spanish ships once anchored in the cove just off these ramparts to unload colonists and supplies, all of which entered the city through a tall red portal known as Puerta de San Juan. This tunnel through the wall dates from the 1630s. It marks the end of the Paseo de la Princesa, and stands as one of three remaining gates into the old city (the others lead into the cemetery and the enclave of La Perla). Once there were a total of five gates, and the massive wooden doors were closed each night to thwart intruders.
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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.
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