The old windows, balconies and gates of the borough of San Felipe, “covered in jasmine and cundeamores”, as described by Julio B. Sosa in his famous novel Tu Sola En Mi Vida, rise proudly still.

Bordering the narrow brick alleys, the city founded in 1673 still keeps the splendor of the Spanish architecture and its large arches; the romance of the French windows and the solidity of the Italian construction, very influential in those times, which soon fused with other modern buildings of the end of the 19th century. As a result, this cluster of colorful buildings, today conserved as World Heritage, stands out as a zone of culture and of great tourism and residential potential.

Next to Plaza Herrera, the Tuesday afternoon in the Casco Viejo looked peaceful. The ladies chatted at the corner, while an old man came out to the balcony – with peeling paint and covered in bloom – when he heard an approaching car that was passing. This citadel, unique and unparalleled in the rest of the Nation and always protected by the Pacific Ocean, is a little city in itself where today come together several types of businesses and residents of all social levels.

Its heart is the Cathedral Plaza, which still shelters zealously the sighs of Sosa’s literary heroine, Gabriela Ocamo, and the chants of the midnight mass and dominical retreats that seep through the neighboring windows, large and colorful.

The evident abandonment that the Casco Viejo suffered for years nowadays is a theme of much interest for government institutions and private enterprise alike, who are trying to bring back the splendor of this zone. For this, a good number of buildings have been restored, and they now house cultural and commercial centers. However, the Casco Antiguo Bureau (OCA) also encourages the restoration of these buildings to increase the availability of low cost living for the
families that have been residents of this borough for many years and also establish other projects to enable the residents of the area to know and appreciate its architecture.

Judith Jaén, assistant to the OCA administration explains that with the beginning of programs like the Escuela Taller (Workshop School), where skills are taught to bring back the value of the architectural heritage of the area, some buildings of this monumental cluster were restored.

Behind its doors, some real works of art in wood or cast iron, are hidden “patios” or stairways that today have a new life as portals of restaurants, shops, musical centers and alternative spaces for art that imitate a little other models seen in Latin America and Europe. Many of these buildings are more than 300 years old and still seem to shelter the stories and gestures of those who lived within their walls. Peeking through its windows is to enter scenes of the past that were