For more than 477 years, the faithful in San Juan have sought serenity at their supreme hours of worship, at the Cathedral of San Juan. First built in 1521 by the Spanish colony's first bishop, Alonso Manso, the thatched wooden church was blown away by a hurricane in 1526. A new temple, built from stones dragged by horse from island quarries, was completed in 1529, in time for the first ordination of a bishop performed in the New World.

By 1865, 344 years and 48 bishops later, the Cathedral assumed its current form, although major restorations were performed under Bishop William Jones in 1927, and then under Puerto Rico's first Cardinal, Luis Aponte Martinez, in the 1970's.