San Juan (Puerto Rico)

San Juan is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. In 1508, Juan Ponce de León founded the original settlement Caparra (named after the province Caceres, Spain, the birthplace of then-governor of Spains Caribbean territories Nicolás de Ovando), which today is known as the Pueblo Viejo sector of Guaynabo, just to the west of the present San Juan metropolitan area. A year later, the settlement was moved to a site then called Puerto Rico, Spanish for rich port or good port, after its similar geographical features to the island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.