San José Square

plaza-san-jose

Plaza San José is a qui­et lit­tle square at the cor­ner of San Sebas­t­ian and Cristo Streets.  Qui­et, that is, if you’re not there on the third week­end of Jan­u­ary, when the famous “Fies­tas de la Calle San Sebas­t­ian” (San Sebas­t­ian Street Fies­tas) take place every year and thou­sands of vis­i­tors flood the area.

The square has a Stat­ue of Juan Ponce de León in the cen­ter.  It faces west, which was the direc­tion in which he head­ed on his final voy­age in search of the Foun­tain of Youth.  The met­al for this stat­ue report­ed­ly came from the melt­ed canons and guns that were recov­ered from the Eng­lish ships destroyed dur­ing a failed attack on el Mor­ro in the 16th Century.

The Stat­ue was orig­i­nal­ly placed at “Plaza de San­ti­a­go”, which was right behind the now demol­ished San­ti­a­go Gate on the east side of the city.  On Jan­u­ary 23rd, 1894 it was replaced by the now famous Christo­pher Colom­bus stat­ue and the square was renamed as Plaza Colón.  Since then, the stat­ue of Juan Ponce de León has adorned the beau­ti­ful Plaza San José.

There are bench­es for peo­ple watch­ing and many cafes and restau­rants all around where you can expe­ri­ence Puer­to Rican cui­sine at its best.

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