Santo Domingo (city)

History

The foundation of the first city of Americas

A first colony, named Isabella , settled in the north of the island a few months after the arrival of Christophe Colomb at the end of 1492. But the strong winds coming from north let accept the colonists who they were the cause of many the epidemic S whose Européen S were reached. It was then decided to build a Ville in the south of the island. On the initiative of Bartolomé Colomb, younger brother of Christophe, in 1496 on Eastern bank of the river Ozama the town of Nueva Isabela was built, in homage to the queen Isabelle de Castille. She was officially founded the August 5th 1498.

In 1502, a Cyclone devastated the new city which was then rebuilt on other bank of the river by the Gouverneur lately named, Nicolás de Ovando, with the site of current the colonial Zone, and took the name of Santo Domingo de Gúzman . Its checkerboard plan was at the origin of the majority of the cities of the Nouveau World. To defend the entry of the river against the attacks of the pirate , the strong Ozama was built of 1502 with 1507, first construction the military of the America S, resting against Tour of the Homage , high 18 meters and a true medieval appearance .

The April 15th 1502, the Ovando governor brought with him 17 brothers franciscains which united with the two first arrived as of the second voyage of Colomb in 1493. They built the first Monastère franciscain: the monastery of San Francisco.

The first Hôpital was built of 1502 with 1508 under the name of San Nicolas de Bari, just as the first Cathédrale, Notre-Dame of the Incarnation. In the beginning small hut covered with sheets of palm trees, it was reinforced in 1514 by large planks of wood and beaten ground. But it is in 1523 that Alejandro Geraldini, bishop of Santo Domingo since 1516, posed the first stone of what is the cathedral of today, completed in 1541. The Pape Paul III set it up in First cathedral of the the Indies the February 12th 1546, at the request of the king Charles V.

Since 1508, Santo Domingo acquired its statute of city, Ferdinand II of Aragon, king of Spain, granting its weapons to him, and became the seat of the viceroyalty of Americas. In 1511, the first Court Royal had as a jurisdiction the whole of the territories of the New World. Diego Colomb, wire of the Admiral, installed his first court of Vice-roi and Gouverneur of the Indies, in what is today named the Palate of Colomb ( El Alcazár de Colón ), located strategically between two doors of the Mur S of enclosure of the city and with a unspoilable view on the river, at the edge of which were also built the shipyards royal which always bear the name of Atarazanas Reales.

In 1538 was created oldest Université New World by a bubble of the pope, In Apostolatus Culmine , which granted this statute the center of studies founded since 1502 by Hernando de Gorjón and which occupied the Convent of the Dominicains, with some steps of the fortress. She was baptized Santo Tomás de Aquino (Saint-Thomas d' Aquin). The institution exists still nowadays under the name of Autonomous Université of Santo Domingo (UASD), but was transferred to the periphery from the colonial zone.

It was thus a city in great expansion which Diego Colomb in 1523 bequeathed, at the end of its second mandate of governor. The Or being done rare on the island had left room to the culture of the Canne to sugar, whose success in Europe allowed the financing of great constructions of Santo Domingo the 16th century.

English attacks

In 1586, Francis Drake and its men took possession of the city during one month during which the Corsaire English tried to negotiate a ransom. It obtained finally only one twentieth of what it had hoped for. Before setting out again towards Carthagène, it plundered and burned most of the city. Only the cathedral, in which it seems to have established its general headquarter during the seat, escaped from fire, but not the flight of its treasure and its Cloche S.

Following this destruction, the majority of the buildings were rebuilt with the identical one. The king Philippe II of Spain ordered nevertheless the reinforcement of the principal stopovers of his Flotte and charged the engineers Juan Bautiste Antonelli and Juan de Tejeda to set up defense systems in the ports of Santo Domingo, San Juan of Puerto Rico, Havana, Carthagène, etc His successor, Philippe III of Spain, in his attempt at fight against the Contrebande, made move several colonies of the northern coast of the island towards the accesses of the capital.

In 1655, the English fleet of Cromwell, taken along by the admiral William PEN and the general Robert Venables attacked the city, the objective being to engage the expansion of the Protestantisme in the New World. The walls were not yet completely reinforced, but the two attempts at attack of the 8000 men of Venables nevertheless were pushed back by the new general governor of Hispaniola, Bernardino de Meneses Brancamonte there Zapata, Count de Peñalba (which gave its name to the principal mall of the city El Conde , which means in French the Count ). PEN and Venables, furious of their rout although persons in charge because of their obvious lack of collaboration, went to seize the Jamaica.

French domination

At the end of the next century, the treated of Basle of 1795 sealed the session by Spain of the part is island of Hispaniola to the France, the latter thus taking again the very whole island, which took the name of Saint-Domingue . The town of Santo Domingo was invaded by All Saints' day Louverture in January 1801.

After independence

At the end of the 19th century, the wall of enclosure was almost entirely demolished and the majority of bricks and the stones were recovered to restore many buildings of the great colonial time. The colonial zone was renovated and its frontages took again the colors of the {{XVIIe|S}}.

The city was almost entirely destroyed by a hurricane in 1930. It was rebuilt and re-elected Ciudad Trujillo in the honor of the dictator Rafael Trujillo. The city just found its original name after the assassination of this last in 1961.

The October 6th 1992, within the framework of the celebrations of the Fifth centenary of discovered and the evangelization of America , was inaugurated the Faro has Colón (Headlight of Colomb), immense Monument with the memory of Christophe Colomb, whose first projects had been filed in as of the year 1923. To this occasion the remainders were transferred from the body of the famous admiral whose funeral skin was hitherto in one of the tombs of the cathedral. The authenticity is however disputed by it by the Spain which affirms to have its remainders.

Into 2001, the city was divided into four municipalities and a city-province.

Twinnings

Santo Domingo is twinned with:

See too

External bonds

History of Santo Domingo.
Guide and information of tourists of Santo Domingo and Dominican Dominican Republic.

Simple: Santo Domingo

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