The COLEGIO DE SAN JUAN DE LETRAN faced San Gabriel at the corner of Anda and Muralla Streets. Known simply as Letran, this school was a result of two men’s concern for the welfare of Spanish orphan boys.

Juan Alonso Jeronimo Guerrero, a retired Spanish military captain, founded the first institution in 1620 and called it Colegio de los Niņos Huerfanos de San Juan de Letran.

In 1632, a Dominican lay brother, Fray Diego de Santa Maria , began a similar task of housing and educating orphans in rooms adjacent to the lobby of the Santo Domingo convent. The school was named Colegio de Huerfanos de San Pedro y San Pablo .

The institutions were merged in 1640 as an exclusive school for boys under the name Colegio de San Juan de Letran. It was officially accepted by the Dominican Order in 1652.

Letran received the honor of being an ecclesiastical college in 1690 and a first-class school (Colegio de Primera Clase en Filipinas ) in 1865.

Inside the college was the chapel of Nuestra Seņora de Aranzazu (Our Lady of Aranzazu).

In 1937, a new school building was constructed to accommodate the growing school population. The college was bombed in 1941 in a Japanese air raid and converted into a garrison during the Japanese occupation.

Letran was severely damaged by artillery shelling in 1945. Letran reopened in 1946 and remains one of the two original schools of Intramuros.