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San German Review

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San Germán

Category: Towns
Location: Southern Puerto Rico

Fodor's Review:

Around San Germán's (population 39,000) two main squares—Plazuela Santo Domingo and Plaza Francisco Mariano Quiñones (named for an abolitionist)—are buildings done in every conceivable style of architecture found on the island, including Mission, Victorian, creole, and Spanish colonial. The city's tourist office offers a free, guided trolley tour. Students and professors from the Inter-American University often fill the center's bars and cafés.

One of the oldest Christian religious structures in the Americas, the Capilla de Porta Coeli overlooks the long, rectangular Plazuela de Santo Domingo. It's not a grand building, but its position at the top of a stone stairway gives it a noble demeanor. It was Queen Isabel Segunda who decreed that the Dominicans should build a church and monastery in San Germán. A rudimentary structure was built in 1609, replaced in 1692 by the structure that can still be seen today. (Sadly, the monastery was demolished in 1866, leaving only a vestige of its facade.) The Heaven's Gate Chapel now functions as a museum of religious art, displaying painted wooden statuary by Latin American and Spanish artists. East end of Plazuela Santo Domingo, 00683. 787/892-5845. www.icp.gobierno.pr. Free. Wed.-Sun. 8:30-noon and 1 to 4:15.

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