San Juan Historic Institutions: El Capitolio, La Fortaleza Governor's Mansion, Casa Blanca, and the Waterfront Promenade
The historic institutions of San Juan include the neoclassical Capitol building, the oldest executive mansion in the Western Hemisphere at La Fortaleza, the 1523 Casa Blanca colonial house, the Museum of the Americas in the former military barracks, and the atmospheric seaside cemetery against the ocean walls.
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El Capitolio: The Puerto Rican Legislature
El Capitolio, the white marble neoclassical capitol building of the Puerto Rico Legislature opened in 1929 on the Puerta de Tierra between Old San Juan and the beach neighborhoods, is one of the finest capitol buildings in the Americas and the architectural expression of the American colonial investment in Puerto Rican political infrastructure. The building dome mosaic and the rotunda murals document the history of Puerto Rico from the Taino period to the American era.
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Fortaleza: The Governor's Palace
La Fortaleza on the south wall of Old San Juan, the official residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico and the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere since 1533, is the seat of Puerto Rican executive government and provides guided tours of the historic colonial building and its tropical gardens on working days. The Fortaleza grounds overlook the San Juan Bay entrance and the busy commercial port.
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Casa Blanca: The Columbus Family Home
Casa Blanca, built for Juan Ponce de Leon in 1523 as the first structure constructed in what became Old San Juan, served as the home of the Ponce de Leon family for 250 years and has been preserved as a museum of the 16th century colonial domestic life. The gardens of Casa Blanca, the oldest European gardens in the Americas, provide the finest green space within the Old San Juan walls.
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Museum of the Americas: The Colonial Heritage
The Museo de las Americas in the Cuartel de Ballaja, the largest military barracks building in the Americas built in 1857 for the Spanish colonial garrison, presents the pre-Columbian, colonial, and contemporary culture of the Americas in exhibition spaces that occupy the vast interior courtyard of the former barracks. The Cuartel de Ballaja complex adjacent to El Morro is the finest adaptive reuse of colonial military architecture in the Caribbean.
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Paseo de la Princesa: The Waterfront Promenade
The Paseo de la Princesa, the waterfront promenade below the San Juan Bay wall of the old city, connects the colonial gate of La Princesa with the Raices fountain and the small beach at the end of the promenade in a shaded walkway that is the most pleasant outdoor public space in Old San Juan. The Raices fountain, with its sculptural representation of the Taino, African, and Spanish cultural roots of Puerto Rico, is the most explicit statement of the Puerto Rican cultural synthesis.
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Cementerio de Santa Maria Magdalena: The Seaside Cemetery
The cemetery of Santa Maria Magdalena on the Atlantic side of Old San Juan, built against the outer fortification walls with the ocean visible over the walls, is one of the most atmospheric cemeteries in the Caribbean, with the elaborate family vaults of the 19th century Puerto Rican aristocracy painted in the pastel colors of the old city and the constant sound of the Atlantic waves on the fortification rocks providing the most contemplative environment in San Juan.