Article: Fashionable, flavorful, fun Old San Juan is filled with shops and dining as well as historic sites

SAN JUAN -- Old San Juan really is. Almost ancient in fact.

The walled town at the heart of Puerto Rico's capital was founded by the Spaniards in 1521, a century before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock. This makes Old San Juan practically medieval by New World standards. Happily, it carries the nearly five centuries lightly and is a lively neighborhood, not a museum village.

Metropolitan San Juan is a study in contemporary urban sprawl, like so many American cities, but the original fortified settlement -- rimmed by 40-foot-high walls and guarded by two great forts -- is the essence of compactness. Laid out to a precise formal plan mandated by Spanish colonial authorities in Madrid, Old ...

Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles:

 
 
Newsweek Harper's Magazine The Washington Post Chicago Tribune Crain's Chicago Business PRNewswire Pediatric News The Nation Advertising Age The Economist (US) A FREE trial gives you access to over 80 million articles! Access over 6,500 publications with a FREE trial!