El Museo Castillo Serralles
situated in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, the
Serralles Castle is a beautiful mansion that overlooks the
downtown area, constructed in the 1920s by Juan Eugenio
Serralles, the son of businessman Juan Serralles, the creator of
Destileria Serralles; and today, the castle has become a museum
dedicated to providing information about the sugar cane and rum
industries, as well as the impact it had on the economy of
Puerto Rico. Sitting on two and a half acres with an outstanding
manicured landscape, it would be listed on the National Register
of Historic Places in 1980. The estate would be purchased by the
city from the heirs, with the castle valued at between $17 and
$25 million, the city would buy it for just $350,000, which
would include most of the original furniture. The city had
wanted to turn it into a museum of Puerto Rican music, which
would be created in another area of the city, so the mansion
would be emptied by 1956 and the main structure maintained in
excellent condition, but the grounds would become overrun with
weeds and a total landscape plan would have to be done so that
it could be restored to its original condition. The structure is
an excellent example of Spanish Moroccan style of architecture
that had been introduced into the country by architect Pedro
Adolfo de Castro, who had two other examples of his work in the
region. There are two large terraces, a symmetrical backyard
garden and outside fountain, with the interior housing a huge
dining room, extravagant hall and interior courtyard, with four
floors on the house. The bottom floor houses the garage and a
basement that was used for service quarters and the second floor
contains the living room, library, kitchen, dining room, central
patio and solarium. The third has all the sleeping quarters and
the fourth is the terrace, where one could get the most
magnificent views of the city. It is built completely of
concrete with wooden rounded archways over the big windows and
doorways, with many adorned with small stained glass panels and
the exterior finished in stucco.
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