The San Jose church is one of the earliest examples of 16th century Gothic Architecture in the western hemisphere. It was built from 1532-1735, and at one time housed the remains of the islands first governor, Juan Ponce de Leon. His remains were moved, but his grandson is still buried there in a crypt under the floor.
The outside of this church was simple and stately, and I’m sure the inside was amazing, unfortunately it was closed for renovations, so we weren’t able to take a peek inside.
We moved on down the street to the San Juan Cathedral-the second oldest cathedral in the New World.
The ceiling paintings were really cool to see-still can’t imagine painting all of that back in the 1500’s. Amazing.
We were short on time, and found ourselves rushing through to be able to see as much as we could. After the fact we read that Juan Ponce de Leon’s remains were actually moved to here. We vaguely remember seeing a special alter and statue of sorts, but didn’t stop to look real close at it. Turns out it was his resting place. Note to self again-travel book to read beforehand.
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