Colonial City of Santo Domingo
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How it came to be
After Christopher Columbus reached Hispaniola in 1492, his brother Bartholomew founded a settlement on the east bank of the Ozama River; UNESCO dates the founding of Santo Domingo to 1498. In June 1502 a major hurricane destroyed it, and Governor Nicolás de Ovando rebuilt the town on the west bank.
The new town was laid out on a grid, a plan that became the model for almost all town planners in the New World. It had the first cathedral, hospital, customs house and university in the Americas; the university was established in 1538. The Alcázar de Colón, the palace of Columbus's son Diego, was built in 1510 and restored to its present appearance in 1952.
In 1586 Francis Drake captured the city and held it for ransom. From 1936 to 1961 it was called Ciudad Trujillo after the dictator Rafael Trujillo, and it took back its name after his assassination. The colonial city was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 1990.
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