About the Museum

Museo Castillo Serrallés (English: Serrallés Castle Museum), a.k.a. Museo de la Caña y el Ron (English: Sugar Cane and Rum Museum), is an agricultural museum in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico, that showcases the history of sugar cane, its derivative rum industry, and their impact in the economy of Puerto Rico. The most notorious feature of the museum is the building it occupies. The building is a large four-story structure built in the 1930s for the owner of Ponce's Destileria Serralles, one of Puerto Rico's largest rum distilleries. The distillery was once also home to Puerto Rico's largest sugar-factory called Central Mercedita, producers of the Snow White sugar brand. The building, known as Castillo Serrallés, was designed by Pedro Adolfo de Castro in 1930 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. The museum sits on a 2.5-acre lot and opened on 20 February 1991. Visitors can tour the refurbished home, which has been furnished to appear as it did in the 1930s. There is also a temporary exhibit area for local artists. The Serrallés Castle is now part of a large complex that includes the Cruceta El Vigía, a Japanese Garden, and a butterfly garden (Mariposario). By September 2010, the museum was receiving around 100,000 visitors per year.