Puerto Rico

The oldest church in Puerto Rico and the second oldest cathedral in the Americas after Santo Domingo, begun as an early 16th-century wooden church and rebuilt in stone after hurricanes destroyed the original structure. Today it serves as the mother church of the Archdiocese of San Juan, the national shrine of Our Lady of Divine Providence, and the resting place of Blessed Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, Puerto Rico's first beatified layperson.

Old San Juan Historic District (U.S. National Register of Historic Places, 1972)151 Calle del Cristo, Viejo San Juan, San Juan, PR 00901

Photo: Daderot, Phạm vi công cộng, Wikimedia Commons

The mother church and cathedral seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Puerto Rico (within the Anglican Communion and historical Protestant tradition) on Juan Ponce de Leon Avenue in the Santurce district of San Juan, tracing its origins to the congregation founded in March 1899, elevated to cathedral rank in 1906 under Bishop James Heartt Van Buren, and erected on its present site between 1929 and 1931 in Spanish Mission Revival and Neo-Gothic style under Bishop Charles Blayney Colmore.

Cathedral and Mother Church of the Episcopal Diocese of Puerto Rico (Diocesis Episcopal de Puerto Rico, within the Anglican Communion and Province IX of the Episcopal Church)1401 Avenida Juan Ponce de Leon (Stop 20, Parada 20), Santurce, San Juan, PR 00907, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/people/oquendo/, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons

The largest congregational mosque and principal Islamic cultural center in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, inaugurated in 2007 on the green hills of La Campina in the Montehiedra sector of Rio Piedras in southern San Juan, distinguished by its monumental central dome, tall slender minaret crowned with a crescent finial, and arched Middle Eastern colonnades adapted to the Caribbean climate, serving Arab-descended and native Puerto Rican Muslim faithful across the island.

Largest Friday Congregational Mosque (Masjid Jami) and Principal Islamic Cultural Center in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Spanish-Speaking Greater Antilles495 Calle 1, Urbanizacion La Campina, Montehiedra, Rio Piedras, San Juan, PR 00926, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Photo: Dr. Houssain Kettani, Phạm vi công cộng, Wikimedia Commons

The second oldest surviving church in the Americas and a rare Western Hemisphere monument of sixteenth-century Spanish Isabelline Gothic rib-vaulted architecture, begun in 1532 by Dominican friars on Plaza San Jose in Old San Juan (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), famed for its starry Gothic vaulted chancel, the crypt that held the remains of Governor Juan Ponce de Leon from 1559 to 1908, the resting place of Rococo painter Jose Campeche, and sixteenth-century mural frescoes restored in 2021.

UNESCO World Heritage Site Component (La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site in Puerto Rico, inscribed 1983, ref. 266) and U.S. National Historic LandmarkPlaza San Jose, corner of Calle del Cristo and Calle San Sebastian, Old San Juan, PR 00901, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Photo: Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz), CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Puerto Rico's oldest and most revered Marian pilgrimage sanctuary crowning a steep hill above the Guanajibo River valley in the western municipality of Hormigueros, founded around 1590 after the miraculous rescue of settler Gildo Gonzalez from a charging wild bull through the intercession of Our Lady of Monserrate, celebrated for its monumental 67-step stone pilgrim staircase, its 1814-to-1834 white church with a Moorish-domed bell tower and seventeenth-century silver altarpiece, and its elevation to Minor Basilica status by Pope John Paul II on May 19, 1998.

Papal Minor Basilica (elevated by Pope John Paul II on May 19, 1998) and U.S. National Register of Historic Places Monument (inscribed March 24, 1975, ref. 75002101)Calle Peregrinos 1, Hilltop Historic Center, Hormigueros, PR 00660, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico

Photo: Ligocsicnarf89, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons