Monasterio de San Francisco

The rustic, dramatic walled ruins of the San Francisco Monastery occupy large blocks of the Colonial City—between Calle Duarte and Calle Hostos—and double as a fantastic merengue concert stage every Sunday. But any other day of the week, the sprawling, unoccupied ruins offer a stunning backdrop for photo lovers and serve as a reminder of the former, first-ever 16th century Franciscan monastery in the New World. It went through several disasters, including a fire caused by Sir Francis Drake, and a couple of earthquakes, before it was eventually used as a mental asylum until the middle of the 20th century.