San Juan Historic City Wall: Cultural Landscape Report, San Juan National Historic Site, National Park Service

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates; Liz Sargent HLA; Panamerican Consultants, Inc.

The San Juan City Wall is a military defensive system built by the Spanish on the Isleta de San Juan, Puerto Rico, between circa 1540 and 1898 to protect the Harbor of San Juan and an associated settlement. The wall system edges the upper promontory of the isleta, a small narrow 615-acre island along the northern coast of Puerto Rico where the city of Old San Juan is located. The San Juan City Wall and associated features, including Castillo San Cristóbal to the east, Castillo San Felipe del Morro to the west, and El Cañuelo, which is situated on Cabras Island across the harbor entrance, constitute San Juan National Historic Site, the only unit of the National Park System in Puerto Rico. San Juan National Historic Site in conjunction with La Fortaleza, another feature of the early Spanish military occupation of the isleta, were designated a World Heritage Site in 1983 for the significance and integrity of the resources. The components of the San Juan City Wall that fall within the boundaries of San Juan National Historic Site are the focus of this Cultural Landscape Report (CLR). The CLR documents the approximately 2-1/2-mile-long system of masonry walls, including a series of bastions connected by curtain walls, which edges the city to the north, west, and south, and the associated landscape both above and below the walls. Features of the San Juan City Wall which are built of sandstone blocks, brick, and rubble materials, include embrasures, or openings, through which artillery could be fired; sentry boxes or garitas to serve look-out needs; firing steps or banquettes for soldiers stationed behind the walls to use to see over the walls; drainage systems used to direct stormwater through the walls; and interior open spaces within the bastions. San Juan National Historic Site and the San Juan City Wall are open and accessible to the public. Weather, public use, maintenance, and other factors affect the condition of the park’s historic resources. The National Park Service (NPS) seeks guidance regarding maintenance and repair protocols, issues related to accessibility, interpretation, and treatment of the cultural landscape through the development of this CLR. Treatment recommendations provided as part of the CLR are based on careful documentation, analysis, and consideration of a range of possible management and maintenance techniques, approaches, and concepts. To prepare the CLR, the NPS engaged a consultant team of preservation professionals through an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract. Team members included Panamerican Consultants, Inc., of Buffalo, New York; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates (WJE) of Northbrook, Illinois; and Liz Sargent HLA, of Charlottesville, Virginia.

San Juan Historic City Wall: Cultural Landscape Report, San Juan National Historic Site, National Park Service

Series