Infanta María Teresa was built at Bilbao, northern Spain. Her keel was laid in 1889, she was launched on 30 August 1890, and was completed in 1893. She had two funnels and was fast and comparatively well-armed. Her main armament was mounted on the centerline in single barbettes fore and aft. Her armor was poor: her 280mm guns had only lightly armored hoods, her 140mm guns were mounted in the open on the upper deck, her armor belt was thin and protected only two-thirds of her length, and she had a high, unprotected freeboard that took much damage during the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. Like other nineteenth-century warships, she was heavily furnished and decorated with wood, which the Spanish failed to remove prior to combat and which would feed fires during the battle.