Palacete Los Moreau, Historic mansion in Moca, Puerto Rico.
Palacete Los Moreau is a two-story mansion in Moca, Puerto Rico, built in the Second Empire Baroque style with two towers and decorative details drawn from both European and Caribbean building traditions. The structure sits on a rural property surrounded by open land typical of the agricultural northwest of the island.
The mansion was built in 1893 by Cornelia Pellot after the death of her husband Juan Labadié, replacing an older wooden house on the family land. The property later became tied to the sugar industry as agriculture in northwestern Puerto Rico shifted away from coffee toward the end of the 19th century.
The Puerto Rican novel La Llamarada, written by Enrique Laguerre, is set in this part of Moca and draws on the sugar cane world that once surrounded the property. Walking around the grounds today, visitors can still see the rural landscape that inspired the story.
Visitors can walk around the exterior and explore the grounds, but the interior of the building is not open to the public. Morning light tends to show the facade at its best, and the surrounding land is easier to take in before the midday heat sets in.
After Enrique Laguerre died in 2005, his ashes were placed in a small mausoleum on the property grounds. This means the author who gave the place its literary fame now rests on the very land his writing described.
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