19°30N 70°42W, pop (2000e) 2 710 000. Capital city of Dominican Republic; on right bank of R Ozama; founded, 1496; airport; harbour; highway junction; university (1538); Renaissance cathedral (151440), Alcazar castle (1514).
Santo Domingo de Guzmán, population 2,061,200 (2003), estimated 2,253,437 in 2006, is the capital and the largest city of the Dominican Republic. It is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, and was the first seat of Spanish colonial rule in the New World.
Historic Background
Before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, the Taíno Indians populated the island of Hispaniola, including the part now occupied by Haiti.
Bartholomew Columbus, brother of Christopher Columbus, founded Santo Domingo, which is today the oldest European city in the New World. Santo Domingo was destroyed by a hurricane shortly after his arrival and he had it rebuilt on a different nearby site (Meinig 1986:9).
The city's most important colonial buildings include the Catedral Primada de América, which is the first Catholic Cathedral in America; the Alcázar de Colón, once the residence of Don Diego Colón, the son of Christopher Columbus who became viceroy of the colony; the Monasterio de San Francisco, the ruins of the first monastery in America; the Museo de las Casas Reales, the former Palace of the Governor General and the Palace of Royal Audiences;
Throughout its first century, Santo Domingo was the launching pad for much of the exploration and conquest of the New World. The expeditions that led to Ponce de Leon's discovery of Puerto Rico, Hernando Cortes' conquest of Mexico and Balboa's sighting of the Pacific Ocean all started from Santo Domingo.
In 1568, the famous English pirate Francis Drake invaded and pillaged the Hispaniola. In 1655, the French invaded the west end of the island, and after several treaties and forced annexations, the portion of the island controlled by Santo Domingo was reduced to less than half. Later on, in 1822, the Haitians, commanded by Jean-Pierre Boyer, took over the entire island, and the island's Spanish-speaking residents had to fight for their lost independence and survival. Finally, on February 27, 1844, the Spanish part of the island regained its independence after 22 years of Haitian rule thanks to a group of patriots headed by Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sánchez and Ramón Matías Mella, being the Puerta del Conde the main scenario of this relevant event. It was then when the Spanish part of the island became the country known today as the Dominican Republic.
After the independence was achieved, various political factions struggled for control of Santo Domingo. In 1861, the Spanish returned to Santo Domingo and annexed the country for four years, this period is known as the Anexión a España. After that, Santo Domingo went through many power changes, including the 20th century Trujillo dictatorship (established after the 1916-1924 occupation by U.S. Marines), which lasted from 1930 to 1961 and ended with the execution of the dictator (during this time Santo Domingo was known officially as Ciudad Trujillo);
The year 1992 marked the 500th anniversary, El Quinto Centenario, of Christopher Columbus' discovery of America. The Columbus Lighthouse (Faro de Colón), with an approximate cost of 400 million Dominican pesos, was erected, amidst great controversy, in honor of this occasion.
There are some museums dedicated to the history of the Dominican Republic, the Museo de las Casas Reales is dedicated to the colonial period; while the soon-to-be renovated Museo de Historia y Geografía is dedicated to the Dominican history prior the Discovery up to contemporary times. The history of the Independence is summarized in the Museo y Casa de Duarte and the Altar de la Patria.
The cobblestone streets and late medieval architecture of the Western Hemisphere's first European city let visitors glimpse the colonial past, as vibrant nightlife, warm beaches and posh resorts take historic Santo Domingo into its future.
Public Transportation
There are many forms of public transportation in the city. The OMSA buses are the closest things you would see to a regular city bus.
There are also many private buses that have starting and stopping points where they wait until they have a sufficient number of passengers to leave, and generally they are smaller buses.
The other form of transportation used by the general public are "carros públicos" (public cars) which are basically taxis that run up and down a street much the same way as the private buses. They are more expensive than OMSA buses, costing almost exactly as much as regular buses, but considerably less than regular taxis.
A 15 kilometer, 15 station metro line is now under construction and scheduled to be completed by 2008.
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