Ballajá Military Barracks

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Across the street from the Asi­lo de Benef­i­cen­cia is a huge colo­nial struc­ture known as the “Cuar­tel de Bal­la­já” or mil­i­tary bar­racks of Bal­la­já.  In colo­nial times this build­ing housed over 1,000 Span­ish sol­diers with their wives and chil­dren in the typ­i­cal aus­tere set­ting of an Iber­ian monastery.

Con­struc­tion began in 1854 and the main build­ing was com­plet­ed in 1863.  Lat­er on, a sep­a­rate chapel was added in 1881. The Cuar­tel de Bal­la­já is a three-sto­ry struc­ture with large entrances at oppo­site ends and arched bal­conies sur­round­ing an immense court­yard that cov­ers the building’s water reservoir.

The Cuar­tel de Bal­la­já was the largest mil­i­tary struc­ture con­struct­ed by the Spaniards in the New World.  It was also the last. After the US inva­sion in 1898, the build­ing became the head­quar­ters of the US Army’s Infantry divi­sion and part of the Fort Brooke Mil­i­tary Reser­va­tion.  In 1943 it was con­vert­ed into a mil­i­tary med­ical facil­i­ty known as the Rodríguez Hospital.

In 1992, the building’s restora­tion was com­plet­ed and it became the home of the “Muse­um of the Amer­i­c­as” (don’t miss our com­plete post about the muse­um here).  The muse­um fea­tures itin­er­at­ing exhibits, as well as an out­stand­ing col­lec­tion of Caribbean and Euro­pean Amer­i­can arts and crafts.

What­ev­er you do, don’t leave with­out enjoy­ing the out­stand­ing col­lec­tion of carved saints, a tra­di­tion of excel­lence among the Island’s lead­ing arti­sans. The muse­um is open Mon­day thru Fri­day, from 9:00am to 12:00n in the morn­ing 1:00pm to 4:00pm in the after­noon.  On Sat­ur­days, from 10am to 5:00pm and Sun­days from 12:00n to 5:00pm.  For more infor­ma­tion, dial 787–724-5052.

Orlando Mergal buys all his photo equipment at B&H

Dis­clo­sure of Mate­r­i­al Con­nec­tion: Some of the links in this post are “affil­i­ate links.” This means that if you click on a link and pur­chase an item, I will receive an affil­i­ate com­mis­sion. Regard­less, I only rec­om­mend prod­ucts or ser­vices that I use per­son­al­ly and believe will add val­ue to my read­ers. I am dis­clos­ing this in accor­dance with the Fed­er­al Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Con­cern­ing the Use of Endorse­ments and Tes­ti­mo­ni­als in Advertising.”

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