San Francisco Monastery Ruins (Ruinas del Monasterio de San Francisco)

San Francisco Monastery Ruins (Ruinas del Monasterio de San Francisco) are on a hilltop n. of Ave. Mercedes at Calle Hostos in the Colonial Zone. The Franciscan monastery was thought to be the first in the Americas. Construction began around 1508, but a series of natural disasters, followed by Sir Francis Drake's 1586 rampage, thwarted its completion.