Sights of Colonial Santo Domingo

The Colonial District is the heart of the original city of Santo Domingo, and the headquarters for Spain at the beginning of its colonization of the Americas. It contains the oldest cathedral, the oldest European-built fortress, the oldest__...well, you can fill in the blank. Cortés lived here before setting off to Mexico, and Pizarro before he left for Peru.

A statue of Christopher Columbus stands in the Parque Colón, just north of the cathedral, the oldest in the New World, the Catedral Basílica Menor de Santa Maria. Diego, Christopher Columbus' son, set the first stone in this structure in 1514.

 

 

 

Kathy stands in front of a tower in the Santo Domingo fortress. Governor Nicolás de Ovando began the fort in 1503 to guard the confluence of the Ozama river with the Caribbean. Trujillo is said to have also used it to hold some political prisoners.

Diego Columbus was a son of Christopher. He lived here, in the Alcázar palace, when he was named governor of Santo Domingo in 1509.

---