San Juan, Puerto Rico

San Juan, Puerto Rico (from the Spanish San Juan Bautista, "Saint John the Baptist") is the capital and largest municipality in Puerto Rico. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 433,733, making it the 42nd-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States. It was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico ("Puerto Rico City").

Puerto Rico's capital is the second oldest European-established city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo, now in the Dominican Republic.

Several historical buildings are located in San Juan Puerto Rico; among the most notable are the city's former defensive forts, Fort San Felipe del Morro and Fort San Cristóbal, and La Fortaleza, the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Americas.

Today, San Juan serves as one of Puerto Rico's most important seaports, and is the island's manufacturing, financial, cultural, and tourism center.

The population of the metropolitan area , including San Juan and the municipalities of Bayamón, Guaynabo, Cataño, Canóvanas, Caguas, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Carolina and Trujillo Alto, is about 2 million inhabitants; thus, about half the population of Puerto Rico now lives and works in this metropolitan area.

The city has been the host of numerous important events within the sports community, including the 1979 Pan American Games, 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games, 2006 World Baseball Classic and the Caribbean Series.

San Juan's climate is tropical marine and enjoys an average temperature of 82 °F (28 °C) during the year, although 90 °F  (32 °C) or higher temperatures are often felt during the summer, especially if the winds come from the south. In the winter, temperatures can drop to the 60s, though the average winter low is 71 °F (22 °C).

The coldest temperature ever recorded was 60 °F (16 °C) on March 3, 1957, and the hottest was 98 °F (37 °C) on October 9, 1981. Rainfall is well-distributed all year, but the months of February, March and April are the driest.

During the Spanish colonial times most of the urban population resided in what is now known as Old San Juan. This sector is located on the western half of a small island called the Isleta de San Juan, which is connected to the mainland by two bridges and a causeway.

The small island, which comprises an area of 47 mi² (122 km²), also hosts the working class neighborhood of Puerta de Tierra and most of Puerto Rico's central government buildings, including the Commonwealth's Capitol.

The main central part of the city is characterized by narrow cobblestone streets and picturesque colonial buildings, some of which date back to the 16th and 17th century. Sections of the old city are surrounded by  massive walls and several defensive structures and notable forts.

These include the 16th century Fort San Felipe del Morro and 17th century Fort San Cristóbal, both part of San Juan National Historic Site, and the 16th century El Palacio de Santa Catalina, also known as La Fortaleza, which serves as the governor's mansion.  On January 23, 1984 both of these edifications were catalogued as being part of humanity's cultural patrimony.

Due to technological advances after World War II in the development of the airliner coupled with the island's climate and natural setting, has transformed San Juan, Puerto Rico into the springboard for tourism around the island, and has made the rest of the Caribbean known throughout the world during the last fifty years.

Today the capital boasts numerous hotels, museums, historical buildings, restaurants, beaches and shopping centers. There are a lot of attractions, for example: Old San Juan, Ocean Park, Isla Verde and El Condado.

Places and monuments emphasized in tourism campaigns consist of: Old San Juan, promoting the historic nature of its colonial buildings and narrow streets covered by adoquine, a blue stone cast from furnace slag; they were brought over as ballast on Spanish ships.

The numerous restaurants and art galleries in the zone are frequently visited by visitors. The local universities are promoted as historic places, most notably the campus of University of Puerto Rico (UPR) located in Rio Piedras, which is the oldest university in the island being founded in 1903. 

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  El Morro, Old San Juan - One of Puerto Rico's Main Visitor Attractions, san felipe del morro fort.
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  Old San Juan, Puerto Rico - The Oldest Settlement Within The Territory of The US

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