Discovering the Colonial Zone
Santo Domingo is the oldest permanent city in the Americas settled by Europeans. It was discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, an Italian searching for the ‘the Indies’ on behalf of the Spanish royal couple Ferdinand and Isabella. The original colony was settled by Bartholomew Columbus, its first governor and brother of Christopher.
As the representative seat of the Spanish monarchy for the entire Spanish Indies, Santo Domingo grew into a center of power and influence. Due to its strategic location, the city was also widely recognized as a resupply stop for Spanish explorers before launching their expeditions of the Caribbean islands.
As such, the city became the home of many firsts - the first capital city in the New World, the first university, the first Catholic cathedral, the first hospital, the first two-story stone house, and the list goes on. While some of those firsts have been decimated by time and hurricanes and exist only as protected ruins, many of the original buildings have been restored and repurposed. Together with the food, music and warmth of the locals, Santo Domingo’s old city or Colonial Zone is a delightful place to visit.
Most of the historical sites are in the Colonial Zone or Zona Colonial. The entire Colonial Zone measures a mere three square kilometers (just over one square mile), making it quite walkable for most visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1990.
Santo Domingo is the capital city of the Dominican Republic or the DR as it is popularly known. The country covers the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola and shares a border with Haiti, a country originally settled by the French. Hispaniola, the name given to the island by Christopher Columbus, is the second largest island in the Caribbean.
With a year round tropical climate and lots of sunshine, blue skies and Caribbean beaches, the Dominican Republic is an increasingly popular winter destination for North American and European visitors looking for a respite from their harsh winter weather. Many of those visitors step back in time as they visit the sites in Santo Domingo's Colonial Zone.