{"id":1879,"date":"2007-12-02T01:56:16","date_gmt":"2007-12-01T21:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dominicana-online.org\/?p=1879"},"modified":"2018-08-01T04:46:03","modified_gmt":"2018-08-01T04:46:03","slug":"historia-santo-domingo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/historia\/historia-santo-domingo\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Santo Domingo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u00a0Bartolom\u00e9\u00a0Columbus, brother of Admiral Christopher Columbus, founded the city of Santo Domingo on the west bank of the R\u00edo\u00a0Ozama\u00a0on a date that generates controversy even today.\u00a0Some historians\u00a0date its establishment to the year\u00a01496, others 1497 and still others, 1498.\u00a0Its origin is also an object of\u00a0contentionl, as for some the motive was the discovery of gold mines and for others it was the romance of a soldier from Aragon with a\u00a0native\u00a0queen named Catalina.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

An irrefutable fact is that the first expeditions\u00a0that\u00a0Columbus\u00a0organized\u00a0to\u00a0explore\u00a0the island in search of gold and establish\u00a0new left from La\u00a0Isabela, the first\u00a0cityin\u00a0the New World.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A publication of the Centro\u00a0para\u00a0la\u00a0Historia\u00a0de\u00a0las\u00a0Obras\u00a0P\u00fablicas\u00a0y\u00a0Urbanas\u00a0(CEHOPU),\u00a0cited by historian Jos\u00e9 Chez\u00a0Checo\u00a0in the edition “Dawn and Dusk of the Villa of Santo Domingo”\u00a0states:\u00a0“Late in 1493, La\u00a0Isabela, the first municipality of the New World, was founded. This settlement had a short\u00a0life as the discovery of gold mines in the south of the territory, next to the R\u00edo\u00a0Haina\u00a0caused colonization to move toward the southern region. Here, in August 1497, the first of the city’s two settlements was raised. Though the date of establishment of Santo Domingo is not proved through documentary evidence, we do know that it was\u00a0Bartolom\u00e9\u00a0Columbus who built\u00a0it, naming it for the day on which he arrived or in memory of the Columbus brothers’ father, also named Domingo.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Destroyed by the hurricane that razed the city in June of 1502, the city was transferred to the western bank of the river by Friar\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s\u00a0de\u00a0Ovando, the Governor of Hispaniola.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ovando\u00a0created the urban layout of the city, which included a group of streets and military, civil and religious buildings. The historians tell that at the time, the then Commander of\u00a0Lares\u00a0designed the first street of America, Las\u00a0Damas, and the first fort,\u00a0Torre\u00a0del\u00a0Homenaje.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The urban enterprise was monumental. Construction masters of great prestige arrived, in addition to experienced masons.\u00a0Ovando\u00a0had arrived to the island with express instructions from the Catholic kings that included the restoration of the privileges that the deposed governor Bobadilla had taken from Columbus and his brothers, who were sent back to Spain in shackles. The new governor arrived to the island with 2,500 Spaniards, some nobles and gentlemen, a group of higher\u00a0human\u00a0quality than the emigrants of the earlier journeys to the Indies, claims Chez\u00a0Checo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

During the first years of\u00a0Ovando, Santo Domingo reached such splendor that it was compared with the most beautiful Spanish cities. Rodrigo de\u00a0Liendo\u00a0was one of the masters that\u00a0built, among other works,\u00a0the\u00a0Monasterio\u00a0de San Francisco and\u00a0the\u00a0Iglesia\u00a0de la Mercedes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0campaign included the construction of the government\u00b4s headquarters, the churches of Santa B\u00e1rbara, San\u00a0Sant\u00f3n, San Miguel and San Carlos,\u00a0and blocks of houses in which the careful masons worked without rest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On December 7, 1508, the city of Santo Domingo received a coat of arms by royal decree. A year later, in 1509, the Spanish Crown designated a son of Admiral Columbus, Diego Columbus, governor of the\u00a0island. The\u00a0man had inherited the titles of viceroy and governor of discovered lands. With the son of the discoverer arrived his wife, Do\u00f1a\u00a0Mar\u00eda\u00a0de Toledo, who belonged to one of the most influential families of Spain at the time. Soon, the steps of Do\u00f1a\u00a0Mar\u00eda\u00a0with her court of ladies on Las\u00a0Damas\u00a0street would make history. Their residence, the\u00a0Alc\u00e1zar\u00a0de Col\u00f3n, still retains part of its original furniture.<\/p>\n

Did you know?<\/b>\u00a0In 1990, the United Nations\u00a0Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization\u00a0(UNESCO) declared the Colonial City of Santo Domingo a “World Heritage Site”.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information:
\n<\/b>Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic:\u00a0http:\/\/www.godominicanrepublic.com\/es\/destinos\/santodomingo-es\/
\n<\/a>Cl\u00faster\u00a0Tur\u00edstico\u00a0de Santo Domingo:\u00a0http:\/\/gosantodomingo.travel\/gosd\/ciudad-detalle\/28\/historia\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u00a0Bartolom\u00e9\u00a0Columbus, brother of Admiral Christopher Columbus, founded the city of Santo Domingo on the west bank of the R\u00edo\u00a0Ozama\u00a0on a date that generates controversy even today.\u00a0Some historians\u00a0date its establishment to the year\u00a01496, others 1497 and still others, 1498.\u00a0Its origin is also an object of\u00a0contentionl, as for some the motive was the discovery of gold mines … Continue reading “History of Santo Domingo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1163,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1879","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1879"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11121,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1879\/revisions\/11121"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}