Ballajá Barracks

The Pablo Casals Museum (Spanish: Museo Pablo Casals), located on San José Square in Old San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a museum dedicated to the Catalan Puerto Rican cellist, composer and conductor Pablo Casals, who lived the last 17 years of his life in San Juan where he composed his masterpiece El Pessebre. In addition to his piano, his cello, historical photographs, some of his musical instruments and personal belongings, the museum also has a media and music library which visitors can browse.

Casa Blanca is a house museum located in Old San Juan within the historic colonial section of the capital of Puerto Rico.

The Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean (Spanish: Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y El Caribe) is a private institute housed in the former San Ildefonso Conciliar Seminary in Old San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico that offers graduate studies in arts and philosophy. It was incorporated on February 28, 1968, by Pablo Casals, Luis Muñoz Marín, Roberto Busó Carrasquillo, and Jaime Benítez. However, it remained inactive and without organization until 1976, when Ricardo Alegría made a request before the Council on Higher Education of Puerto Rico to transform the center into an academic institution. The center is currently accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools and it publishes La Revista del Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe.

Plaza de la Catedral (Spanish for 'cathedral square'), also known as Plazuela de las Monjas ('little square of the nuns'), is a small public square located in front of the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista and next to the former Carmelite convent (now a Hotel El Convento) in the Old San Juan historic district of the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The small but historic square is possibly the oldest in the city, dating to the foundation of the cathedral in 1521, and is found at the end of a wide historical residential block bound by the alleyways (Spanish: caletas) of Las Monjas and San Juan to the north and south, respectively, and by Calle del Cristo ('del Cristo Street') to the east. Caleta de San Juan connects this square to the San Juan Gate (Puerta de San Juan), formerly known as the Water Gate (Puerta de Agua) as it was the main harbor entrance into the walled city. This block formerly contained the first Episcopal church in the city between 1909 and 1929 when it was moved to a bigger location in Santurce, and later housed the San Juan Children's Museum (Museo del Niño de San Juan), which closed in 2016.

Hotel El Convento is a small hotel in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, in what was a Carmelite convent, adjoining the San Juan Cathedral square. The cathedral is the second-oldest cathedral in the Western Hemisphere. Hotel El Convento is the oldest member of the Historic Hotels of America. It was also named the premier Small Luxury Hotel in Puerto Rico by the Small Luxury Hotels of the World organization.

Catedral, located within Old San Juan, is one of 7 subbarrios of San Juan Antiguo barrio in the municipality of San Juan in Puerto Rico.

The Catedral Basílica Metropolitana de San Juan Bautista, or in English, Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of Saint John the Baptist, is the Roman Catholic cathedral of the Archdiocese of San Juan de Puerto Rico. The cathedral is one of the oldest buildings in San Juan, located in Old San Juan, the oldest cathedral in the United States, and is the second oldest cathedral in the Americas. Even though the Cathedral of Santa María la Menor in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, is an older church building, the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista was the first cathedral church in the Americas as San Juan, then known as the city of Puerto Rico, was the first diocese of the New World with bishop Don Alonso Manso in 1511. The site is the location of the first church built in the New World. A private Puerto Rican foundation known as Fundación Protectora de la Catedral Metropolitana de San Juan, Inc. has been established to fund the historical restoration of the building and its art treasures for its 500th anniversary in 2021, and to protect it for coming centuries.

Paseo del Morro (English: Promenade of the Morro or Morro Promenade), is a waterside, riprap-lined, breakwater-protected pedestrian promenade about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) in length located in the historic district of Old San Juan in Puerto Rico that runs adjacent and parallel to the western section of the Walls of Old San Juan on San Juan Bay. Built in 1999 as a extension of an existing 18th-century maintenance walkway on the southwestern section of the wall located on the final stretch of Paseo de la Princesa (Promenade of the Princess), the promenade is a contemporary construction bordering the western defensive wall, which originally stood directly exposed to the waters of San Juan Bay. It was designated a National Recreational Trail in 2001.The promenade starts in Catedral, the southwestern sub-barrio in Old San Juan on the San Juan Islet, at the ending location of Paseo de la Princesa (Promenade of the Princess), Puerta de San Juan (San Juan Gate), formerly known as Puerta de Agua (Water Gate), on the Walls of Old San Juan next to La Fortaleza, the 16th-century executive residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico, passes by the Bastión de San Agustín (San Agustin Bastion), Polvorín de Santa Elena (Santa Elena gunpowder depot), and Bastión de Santa Elena (Santa Elena Bastion) on the Walls of Old San Juan, and ends at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro in Ballajá, the northwestern sub-barrio in Old San Juan on the San Juan Islet, at Punta del Morro (Morro Point), the westernmost position on San Juan Islet overlooking the entrance to San Juan Bay and Isla de Cabras (Goat Island), the small islet immediately across the bay’s entrance from El Morro where the 17th-century fort of El Cañuelo was built by the Spanish to further protect Old San Juan and its harbor from invasions by foreign powers and harassment by privateers and pirates during the Age of Discovery and Exploration.

San José Church (Spanish: Iglesia de San José), located in Old San Juan within the historic colonial zone of the capital of Puerto Rico, is one of the first significant works of architecture on the island. The church is one of the earliest surviving examples of 16th-century Spanish Gothic architecture in the Western hemisphere.In 2013 it was added to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's list of 11 Most Endangered Historic Places of 2013.

The Department of State of Puerto Rico was created in July 1952 and is responsible of promoting the cultural, political, and economical relations between Puerto Rico, other jurisdictions of the United States and foreign countries.

La Fortaleza (lit., "The Fortress" ) is the official residence of the governor of Puerto Rico. It was built between 1533 and 1540 to defend the harbor of San Juan. The structure is also known as Palacio de Santa Catalina (Saint Catherine's Palace). It is the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the New World. It was listed by UNESCO in 1983 as part of the World Heritage Site "La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site". During the 1640 reconstruction, the chapel of Santa Catalina, which originally stood outside the walls, was integrated into the structure's walls, resulting in the alternate name Santa Catalina's Castle.

Museo de las Américas is a multidisciplinary museum in San Juan, Puerto Rico dedicated to the arts, folklore, architecture and broader history of the Americas. Its mission is to offer a synoptic view of the history and culture of the Americas from ancient to contemporary, emphasizing in Puerto Rico and its relationship to the continent, through exhibition programs and cultural activities. Founded in 1992 by Ricardo Enrique Alegría Gallardo, a professor at the Universidad de Puerto Rico and founder of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, the museum is dedicated to its role in preserving and perpetuating Puerto Rican arts and culture, both within the territory and abroad. Among its temporary exhibitions, the museum has four permanent exhibitions: The Popular Arts in the Americas, The African Heritage, The Indigenous of America and Conquest and Colonization: Birth and Evolution of the Puerto Rican Nation. Museo de Las Americas is a multidisciplinary, multicultural and multidimensional learning museum, responding to a diverse community, which allows it to consolidate itself as a cutting-edge institution in Puerto Rico. It is currently housed in the former Ballajá Barracks, built between 1854 and 1864 as one of the last major architectural projects of the Spanish colonial rule over the island before it was annexed by the United States in 1898. Initially, when Puerto Rico was annexed by the United States, the federal government paid the Catholic Church for this property, among others in the area. Ownership of the property, claimed by the Catholic Church, was not a straightforward matter and had to be resolved by the Supreme Court. The Government of Puerto Rico acquired the building in 1976 through a transfer from the Government of the United States with the commitment of restoring it and using it for cultural, educative, and touristic purposes. In 1986, a reform plan for the San Juan Historic Zone was sketched and the building was restored from 1990 to 1993.