Center for Advanced Studies on Puerto Rico and the Caribbean

cen­tro-de-estu­dios-avan­za­dos-de-puer­to-rico-y-el-caribe

A lit­tle to the south of Plaza San José, on Cristo street, you will find the Cen­ter for Advance Stud­ies on Puer­to Rico and the Caribbean, a beau­ti­ful colo­nial build­ing paint­ed in gray with peach trim. You will find it on your right hand side walk­ing down­hill about half way down before reach­ing the inter­sec­tion with Calle Sol.  The build­ing was inau­gu­rat­ed in 1832 as the “Sem­niario Con­cil­iar”, where many of the Island’s priests and sec­u­lar stu­dents trained for over a cen­tu­ry.  Many of Puer­to Rico’s finest politi­cians and thinkers trained at the “Sem­niario Con­cil­iar”, includ­ing:  Ale­jan­dro Tapia y Rivera, Román Bal­do­ri­o­ty de Cas­tro, José Julián Acos­ta, Cal­letano Coll y Toste and José Cel­so Barbosa.

Queen Isabel II was instru­men­tal in con­vert­ing the “Sem­i­nario Con­cil­iar” into the Island’s pre­mier edu­ca­tion­al facil­i­ty in areas such as: physics, chem­istry, lit­er­a­ture, gram­mar, rhetoric, arith­metic, geom­e­try, log­ic, cos­mog­ra­phy, meta­physics and for­eign languages.

In 1900 the Sem­i­nar closed its doors and the aban­doned build­ing served as a Catholic school for sev­er­al years.  Dur­ing the 20th Cen­tu­ry the build­ing was returned to its orig­i­nal use for sev­er­al decades and was final­ly con­demned in 1972.

In 1984 the build­ing was remod­eled under the guid­ance of Ricar­do Ale­gría and has since been the home of the Cen­ter for Advance Stud­ies on Puer­to Rico and the Caribbean.  The building’s beau­ti­ful archi­tec­ture and cen­ter court­yard are well worth the visit.

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