Cuartel de Ballajá

Built by the Spanish military between 1854 and 1864, the Cuartel de Ballajá was the last large-scale construction project the Spanish Crown undertook in the Americas. The three-story structure covers 7,700 square meters and once housed over a thousand soldiers and their families, along with storage rooms, kitchens, dungeons, and horse stables. On May 12, 1898, Admiral William T. Sampson's fleet damaged it during the American bombardment of San Juan. The Puerto Rican government acquired it in 1976 and restored it between 1990 and 1993; it now operates as a cultural and educational complex.