[2] This is because San Juan, then known as the City of Puerto Rico, was the first diocese of the New World in the post-Columbus era (excluding Norse settlements in Greenland), with Bishop Don Alonso Manso appointed in 1511.

[4] The original cathedral in what was the city of Puerto Rico (changed to San Juan Bautista in 1521) was constructed from wood in 1521.

It was destroyed by a hurricane and the current church construction began in 1535, being practically completed in 1802, later in 1905 an upper portion to the facade was added.

The school was free of charge and the courses taught were Latin language, literature, history, science, art, philosophy and theology.

It also has a shrine to the Blessed Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Santiago, the first Puerto Rican and first Caribbean-born layperson in history to be beatified.