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Firehouse museum at dusk Parque de Bombas, Plaza Las Delicias, Ponce, Puerto Rico

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Parque de Bombas

Ponce


±Ê´Ç²Ô³¦±ðñ´Ç²õ (people from Ponce) claim that the eye-popping Parque de Bombas is Puerto Rico’s most frequently photographed building, which is not too hard to believe as you stroll around the black-and-red-striped, Arabian-style edifice and make countless unwitting cameos in family photo albums.

Originally constructed in 1882 as an agricultural exhibition hall, the space later housed the city’s volunteer firefighters, who are commemorated in a small, tidy exhibit on the open 2nd floor. The many-colored lions are a reference to the man who gave the city its name: Juan Ponce de León y Loayza (leon in Spanish means 'lion').


ÀÏ°ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼'s must-see attractions

Nearby Ponce attractions

2. Plaza Las Delicias

0.02 MILES

Within this elegant square you’ll discover Ponce's heart as well as two of the city’s landmark buildings, Parque de Bombas and Catedral Nuestra Señora…

3. Fuente de los Leones

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A lovely fountain in the middle of the Plaza Las Delicias – a survivor from the 1939 World Fair.

4. Casa Alcaldía

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Facing the southern side of Plaza Las Delicias, Ponce’s city hall was built in the 1840s. The last public hanging on the island happened in its courtyard,…

5. Teatro La Perla

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The 1000-seat, grandly columned Teatro La Perla was designed by Juan Bertoli Calderoni, father of Puerto Rico’s neoclassical style, and completed in the…

6. Casa Wiechers-Villaronga

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Perhaps the most grand of Ponce’s historical homes, this mansion was designed by Paris-educated ponceño architect Alfredo Wiechers. The carefully…

7. Museo de la Historia de Ponce

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Ponce's history museum is extensive for a city of fewer than 200,0000 people – evidence of the city’s reverence for the past. Located in the Casa Salazar …

8. Museo de la Masacre de Ponce

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This small museum commemorates the Ponce Massacre, the fated pro-independence demonstration of the 1930s during which almost 20 protestors (and two police…