San José is the second oldest church in the Americas — Dominican friars started it in 1532 and the vaulted ceilings are among the earliest examples of Spanish Gothic architecture surviving anywhere in the New World. Ponce de León was originally buried here before being moved to the cathedral in the nineteenth century.
The building was closed for over fifteen years for structural restoration after damage from earlier earthquakes and hurricanes, and reopened in 2021. The interior is severe and beautiful — stripped-back stone, simple ribbed vaults, no gilt. The Plaza San José outside, with its statue of Ponce de León cast from melted-down British cannons captured in 1797, is one of the prettier small squares in the old city.