Santo Domingo: Caribbean Vacations

Santo Domingo 

   Santo Domingo is a city with a long history since it was the second city founded in America by the Spaniards. In the beginning was called or baptized as the Isabela or Isabel la Catolica. When Christopher Columbus founded the first city called La Isabela, which today is Puerto Plata, only lasted three years there and then moved leaving the first city abandoned. When Christopher Columbus came out of the first Isabela, founded the second Isabela which today bears the name Santo Domingo de Guzman, capital of the Dominican Republic.

The city is located infront of the Caribbean Sea at the mouth of the Ozama River, 155 km to the southeast of Santiago de los Caballeros. Santo Domingo is Known for being the place of the first European settlement in America, and for being the first headquarters of the Spanish colonial government in the New World. It is bordered to the south by the Caribbean Sea, to the east with the city of Santo Domingo East, West with Santo Domingo West and to the north with Santo Domingo Norte; between all form the Great Santo Domingo.

In Santo Domingo are the first cathedral and the first castle of America; both located in the Colonial City, an area declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.  Santo Domingo is one of the largest cultural centers, financial, political, commercial and industrial of the Dominican Republic; several industries of the country are located within the city. Santo Domingo also serves as the main port of the country, some of the ports of the city is located at the mouth of the Ozama River and is home to the largest ships, and is capable of receiving both uploads of passengers and freight traffic.

It was here in Santo Domingo where it was founded also the first university of america which carries by name (UASD) AUTONOMOUS UNIVERSITY OF SANTO DOMINGO. The Autonomous University of Santo Domingo has agreements in force with universities of prestige in the 5 continents, through which sets exchange of professors, student, scholarships and promotes joint research. The General Direction of Cooperation and International Relations provides information through its web page.  

The Autonomous University of Santo Domingo was founded as such on 16 November 1914, is considered to be the heir of the Convent of the Dominicans of 1518, and the University of St Thomas Aquinas that was created by the papal bull In Apostolatus Culmineel 28 October 1538. The Pope Paul III established with this bull one of the first universities in the new continent, although this not received official recognition on the part of the Kingdom of Spain until two decades later. This is why there is a controversy on the first University of America.

The University of Saint Thomas Aquinas formed, together with the first cathedral, the first hospital and the first customs office; the set of institutions Primate of America installed in the city of Santo Domingo de Guzman. The university has ceased to be a Studium Generale, which was handled by the Congregation of the Dominicans, to become the center of education in the new world. By means of the previously mentioned Bula, it ascends this General Survey, that the Dominicans directed from the year 1518, the category of University in 1538.

The nascent university takes as the model of the University of Alcala de Henares, and as such was porta-banner of Renaissance ideas emerging from the medieval world, from which emerged the Spain of the days of the conquest.  It was here also where it was founded the first cathedral in America.  Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica Santa Maria of the Incarnation is the oldest cathedral in America, consecrated by Pope Julius II in 1504. Headquarters of the Archdiocese of Santo Domingo, its construction began in 1504, under the direction of Bishop Fray Garcia Padilla. 

The construction of the Basilica was initiated by the architect Alonso de Rodriguez in the year 1504 by the will of Pope Julius II. Alonso was unemployed and the construction was stopped for a time. After a while being detained, continued with the construction of the Church in the year 1522, this time by the architects Luis Moya and Rodrigo de Liendo. The construction of the church was delayed 18 years, finishing its construction in the year 1540. In 1546 the Pope Paul III, the rose to the rank of Metropolitan Cathedral and primatial see of America at the request of Emperor Carlos V.

 Other promotion came in 1920 when Pope Benedict XV raised it to Minor Basilica of the Virgin of the Annunciation. In the 1547 construction work was interrupted the bell tower, because its height was above the tower of the Tribute, had given a disturbance to the Sentinels.

The architecture of the building is characterized by its solid walls and three doors, two of them gothic in contrast to the third and main in the plateresque style. The cathedral contains a vast artistic treasure constituted with altarpieces, tables including a table of the Virgin of Altagracia dating from 1523, old joinery, furniture, funerary monuments and tombstones, among other objects.

 It highlights the mausoleums of the archbishops of the colonial period; it is also worth mentioning the tombstone funeral home of Simon Bolivar, one of the forerunners of the Liberty of America. In the cathedral were housed during a time the remains of Christopher Columbus and after were moved to the Columbus Lighthouse. The Archiepiscopal throne in the plateresque style dates back to the year 1540. Formed part of the low choir, dismantled at the end of the last century to place the monument of marble that was stored with the remains of Christopher Columbus. The cathedral is built with limestone, although some of the walls are of masonry and brick, and account with twelve side chapels.

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