Colonial Mental Assylum

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Once you leave Fort San Felipe del Mor­ro the dirt trail will lead you straight into the old city.  But if you pre­fer, you can walk along­side the city wall on your left and return to the trail were it ends next to the Colo­nial Men­tal Assylum.

You’ll catch a stun­ning view of the Old San Juan Ceme­tery, as well as the north side of the city wall and seafront.

We DO NOT how­ev­er rec­om­mend that you ven­ture alone into the ceme­tery grounds.  Once again, please refrain from walk­ing on the city walls.

The Colo­nial Men­tal Assy­lum is a beau­ti­ful struc­ture built in 1854, by roy­al decree, to serve as an insane asy­lum. The building’s red dome roof stands out from El Mor­ro grounds and the oppo­site end of the Glacis.  Its twin court­yards used to be adorned with lus­cious gar­dens and foun­tains that added charm and ambiance.

After the US inva­sion in 1898, the Colo­nial Men­tal Assy­lum was con­vert­ed into the Fort Brooke Mil­i­tary Reser­va­tion Army Bar­racks.  Fort Brooke was a mil­i­tary com­plex that oper­at­ed under the Depart­ment of the Army and includ­ed Fort San Felipe del Mor­ro, Fort San Cristóbal, Fort San Juan de la Cruz (bet­ter know as El Cañue­lo), the 19th Cen­tu­ry mil­i­tary bar­racks of Bal­la­já, the colo­nial Men­tal Assy­lum and sev­er­al oth­er adja­cent structures.

In 1949 the San Juan Nation­al His­toric Site was estab­lished and the entire com­plex was trans­ferred to the Depart­ment of the Inte­ri­or.  How­ev­er, the facil­i­ties were actu­al­ly in Army hands until Sep­tem­ber of 1961.  Many of the struc­tures sur­round­ing the colo­nial san­i­tar­i­um remained closed and aban­doned until 1992, when Puer­to Rico cel­e­brat­ed the Quin­cen­ten­ni­al of the Dis­cov­ery of America.

In 1965 the old Men­tal Assy­lum became the Puer­to Rican Acad­e­my of Fine Arts.  Today, many of the student’s projects take up much of what used to be the building’s court­yards and foun­tains and most tourists walk by with­out a hint of the building’s history.

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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