Cities
Ponce, Puerto Rico
Caribbean
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Ponce is a city and municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico, a few miles inland from the Caribbean Sea. It was founded on August 12, 1692 and named for Juan Ponce de Leon y Loayza, great-grandson of the conquistador Juan Ponce de Leon, gaining villa status in 1848 and city status in 1877. It was the island's largest city at the time of the 1898 United States invasion and became Puerto Rico's first autonomous municipality in 1992. The 2020 census recorded 137,491 residents, making it the most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, and it is known as La Perla del Sur for its Ponce Creole, Rococo and Neoclassical architecture.
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