Open for business offering half hourly tours despite being the current residence of San Juan’s Governor, as well as the traditional home, La Fortaleza is a hybrid palace fort in bright blue. It was built in 1540 to be a fort but wasn’t up to the challenge of guarding the harbour, so it became the Governor’s house. It didn’t get its graceful palatial exterior in pale blue, like one of those Wedgewood plates with the raised white detailing, until the mid 19th Century.

These days the compound has two towers and a few attached living quarters overlooking the bay, with a swimming pool and sheltered gardens at the back within the high city walls. The half hourly tours are in Spanish but there are hourly tours in English though the public sections of the house/ fort.

It’s the oldest executive residence in the ‘new world’ and UNESCO has included it as a World Heritage Site.

Written by  World Reviewer Staff.

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