Most visitors go to Ponce to see the city's renovated historic section, which beautifully restored much of the city's whimsical architectural style. While the city dates back to 1692, its unique "Ponce Creole" architecture, mixing Spanish colonial, neoclassical, Caribbean, and contemporary influences, was mostly created from the 1850s through the 1930s. The style is marked by the use of wide balconies, distinctive masonry work, and touches like plaster garlands, punched tin ceilings, and stained glass panels, while other architectural motifs are present within specific geographic areas of the city, such as common grill work or building size. The style takes European concepts, but adapts them to the city's tropical climate by using pastel colors on building facades and adding high ceilings that help keep houses cool.
The city's unique architecture was created during the years of Ponce's heyday, in the 19th century, when it trumped San Juan as the island's most important city and rose as a regional trading power. Cut off from San Juan because of geographic barriers, Ponce's trade brought foreign influences and style that also impacted its architecture, as well as its wider culture, including music and cuisine.
City residences, which initially were a basic colonial style, became more intricate as the city's fortunes and its foreign influences began rising. First, ornate neoclassical and then art nouveau touches were incorporated, and interiors were adorned with mosaic tile floors, jalousies, stained glass panels, and detailed moldings and cornices. Interior balconies, often with a wall of tiny windows that allows sunlight into the patio, are also used. Calle Reina Isabel, one of the city's major residential streets, is a virtual textbook of the Ponceño style, ranging from interpretations of European neoclassical to Spanish colonial. The neoclassical style here often incorporates balconies, as befits the warm climate, and an extensive use of pink marble. The "Ponce Creole" style, a term for Spanish colonial, includes both exterior and interior balconies. The interior balconies have a wall of tiny windows that allows sunlight into the patio.
There are more than 1,000 historic buildings in Ponce, and the vast majority has been restored. Many are on streets radiating from the stately Plaza Las Delicias (Plaza of Delights). On calles Isabel, Reina, Pabellones, and Lolita Tizol, electrical and telephone wires have been buried, replica 19th-century gas lamps have been installed, and sidewalks have been trimmed with the distinctive locally quarried pink marble. Paseo Atocha is a main shopping street that is now a delightful pedestrian mall with a lively street festival on the third Sunday of every month. Paseo Arias, or Callejon del Amor (Lover's Alley), is a charming pedestrian passage between two 1920s bank buildings, Banco Popular and Banco Santander, on Plaza Las Delicias, where outdoor cafe tables invite lingering. Two monumental bronze lions by Spanish sculptor Victor Ochoa guard the entrance to the old section of the city.
In addition to the attractions listed below, the weekday marketplace, open Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm, at calles Atocha and Castillo, is colorful. Perhaps you'll want to simply sit in the plaza, watching the Ponceños at one of their favorite pastimes -- strolling about town.
