HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE - 37 Historical Location Options

first shipwreck - Santa Maria - the flagship of Christopher Columbus - 1492.

On Christmas Day of 1492 Christopher Columbus' flagship, the Santa Maria, ran aground off the northern coast of Haiti. 

The wreck of the Santa Maria is not, as one might think, a full boat resting on the sea floor. Rather, the grounded ship was stripped down, the wood used to build a fortress in what Columbus called La Navidad, the first Spanish settlement.

The fortress lasted less than a year, but its brief existence had important consequences for American history. It provided proof of occupation by Spain, necessary to gain the papal award of these new lands in the west. And the massacre of its garrison gave excuse, if excuse were needed, for Spanish persecution of the native population of Espanola and the Antilles.

first Catholic mass was celebrated - La Isabela - 1494 - January 6.

The first Catholic Mass was celebrated on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1494, at a temporary shelter that would serve as a church at La Isabela. 

Five priests accompanied the expedition: Benedictine Father Buil, Jeronymite Father Ramone Pane, and three Franciscan missionary priests. 

Fr. Buil celebrated the Mass.

first sugar cane plant came ashore - La Isabela - 1494.

Ironically, sugar cane is not a plant native to the Americas. 

It is a perennial grass whose tropical species seems to have originated in New Guinea, and subtropical species in India. 

During the invasion of India in 326 B.C., Alexander the Great's soldiers became the first Europeans to see sugar cane; honey was the primary sweetener of the Western world at the time. 

Arab traders and Moorish conquerors spread the plant throughout the Mediterranean region, introducing it in Spain around 714 A.D.

Centuries later, under Spanish sponsorship, Christopher Columbus carried sugar cane stem cuttings from the Canary Islands to Hispaniola on his second voyage, planting the seed-cane in Santo Domingo by December 1493. 

Subsequent Spanish colonizers spread the crop to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.

first church - Iglesia La Isabela - 1494.

Built over the ruins of the original 16th century church built by Christopher Columbus at La Isabela.

Considered to be the first Catholic Church of the New World - Templo de Las Américas’ - brick and stone colonial building sits in a beautifully landscaped garden. 

Its interior is replete with images of the Virgin Mary. 

Stroll inside and feel the constant breeze from the nearby Atlantic flowing through this spiritual site.

first port - Puerto Santo Domingo - 1496.

The Puerto Santo Domingo is located at the mouth of the marine entrance to the city of Santo Domingo.

In the days when the Spanish ruled the Americas, everything coming into or going out of the Caribbean had to pass through Puerto Santo Domingo.

first lighthouse - Faro de Punta Torrecilla - 1498.

The Faro San Souci at Punta Torrecilla is located near the entrance to the port of Santo Domingo at Rio Ozama on the South Coast of Dominican Republic. 

The yellow and black lighthouse stands at the tip of the park Punta Torrecilla on the coral cliffs of the Caribbean Sea. 

The pyramid-like concrete tower is 135 feet tall. Faro Sans Souci sends out a blinking white light beacon with a view range of 13 nautical miles. 

The lighthouse is used as a navigational aid for entrance into the Port of Santo Domingo.

first city grid layout - Grand Place (Plaza Mayor) - 1501.

Zona Colonial, the oldest part, of the oldest city, Santo Domingo, is designed in a Grand Place-Plaza Mayor grid pattern. 

Zona Colonial was given the nickname "Cradle of Civilization of the New World" because its 

checkerboard layout later became a reference for almost all the town planners of the New World 

(nearly every major city in North America is designed in this grid pattern).

first fort - Fortaleza Ozama - 1502.

The Ozama Fortress is recognized by UNESCO as being the oldest military construction of European origin in the Americas.

The construction of this fortress is designed in the form of a stone castle and still preserves its original architecture. Inside the fortress there are tunnels and dungeons where the prisoners were locked up, Christopher Columbus himself, one of the most important figures in the history of the Americas, was imprisoned in the Ozama fortress.

first paved road - Calle las Damas - 1502.

Calle Las Damas was originally named Calle de la Fortaleza when it was created in 1502. It is a beautiful street lined with historical buildings 

from the original settlement of Santo Domingo.

Many of the high society of Spain and the ladies “of culture” took up residence on Calle de la Fortaleza, including Admiral and Viceroy Diego Columbus and his wife doña María de Toledo who was the great niece of the King of Spain, King Ferdinand. 

The name was changed later to Calle las Damas, in honor of the Ladies-in-Waiting who strolled up and down its north to south running length.

first airbnb - casa de Hernan Cortez - 1502.

Casa de Hernán Cortés is one of 15 buildings Nicolás de Ovando, the governor of Hispaniola, had ordered to be constructed.

This Gothic style building was originally built in 1502 to rent to visitors. Ovando leased these houses to conquistadors who all organized and launched their conquests from their home base in Santo Domingo.

The name came about because it was the home of the explorer and conqueror of Mexico, Hernán Cortés. He was the most famous tenant of the house. Cortés planned his expedition and ultimate conquest of Mexico in this house.  

Francisco Pizarro, the conqueror of Peru, was another famous conquistadors who lived in the house.

first city hall - Palacio Consistorial - 1502

The Palacio Consistorial, located in the Colonial City, Zona Colonial of Santo Domingo, was the original location of the old town hall. It is the oldest Town Hall in The Americas. 

The most notable aspect of this historic building, is the 95 foot high clock tower (torre del reloj). The top of the tower has a crowned dome known as El Vivaque.

first hydraulic sewerage system - Alcantarilla Colonial - 1502.

Buried beneath the colonial city is a very important historical sight. 

The first hydraulic sewage system from the Colonial period. 

These culvert tunnels are said to have run from Calle Restauración to the Santo Domingo Port. 

The tunnels zig-zag under the streets, businesses and homes in the old part of the city of Santo Domingo. 

They were not only used to move debris but also humans, animals and military unseen and undercover throughout the city.

first hospital - Ruinas de Hospital San Nicolas de Bari - 1503.

The Hospital San Nicolás de Bari was the first hospital built from stone in the New World.

The Hospital of San Nicolas de Bari was originally built in November 1503. 

It was located in the original settlement on the other side of Rio Ozama. 

When the settlement moved the hospital was rebuilt at its present location. It is said that the hospital was built atop the home of a black woman who nursed the sick.

The original hospital was a palm hut. The ladies of the colony who had the desire would come and take care of the sick as a charity offering. This palm building was only able to hold about six patients.

A stone building replaced the original palm structure in 1519. Construction of this state of the art hospital made of stone and brick was complete in 1527.

first seat of government - Casa Reales - 1503.

The Palace of the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo, called then Edificio de las Casas Reales, is the first (oldest) headquarters of Spanish power in the New World.

The palace, built by orders of the Spanish Crown to house the main government and administrative offices of the Spanish colonies in the Americas, existed in two interconnected buildings (hence the plural Casas Reales). 

In the first (South) section was the Royal Audiencia, the first court of the New World, as well as the office of the Comptroller General. 

The second (North) section was used by the successive Viceroys, Governors and Captains-General.

At the time any trespassers would be sentenced to death.

first skyscraper (2-storey building) - Casa de Cordon - 1503.

The building was originally owned by Francisco de Garay, who came to Hispaniola with Columbus. 

Its portal features an impressive and beautifully carved door frame in the form of a Franciscan monk's rope belt (cordón).

Casa del Cordon is the oldest stone building in the new world, and it is still in use.

It is also the oldest structure in The New World with 2 floors. It was built in the Elizabethan and Gothic styles of the time.

first thanksgiving - town of Jaragua (July 1503).

The Jaragua Massacre of 1503, was ordered by the Spanish governor of Santo Domingo, Nicolás de Ovando, after a Thanksgiving celebration held in the village of Yaguana in Jaragua of the cacica Anacaona. 

Although the festival ended up as a massacre, it is regarded as the first Thanksgiving of the New World.

Ovando had gone to Jaragua with 300 men plus many local natives of the tribe of Marien. 

Ovando allegedly enticed the Caciques that were present into a batey (large hut) to witness a tournament by Spaniards. 

He then gave a prearranged signal and the Spaniards seized and bound the caciques, while others fell on the Indians milling outside." Many of the Indians were thus killed, including 80 caciques burned alive, and Anacaona hanged.

first house of commerce of the West Indies - Casa de Contratacion de las Indias - 1503.

The Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) was established by the Crown of Castile, in 1503 in the port of Seville as a crown agency for the Spanish.

The Casa de Contratación had broad powers over overseas matters, especially financial matters concerning trade and legal disputes arising from it. 

It also was responsible for the licensing of emigrants, training of pilots, creation of maps and charters, probate of estates of Spaniards dying overseas. 

Its official name was La Casa y Audiencia de Indias.

The Casa collected all colonial taxes and duties, approved all voyages of exploration and trade, maintained secret information on trade routes and new discoveries, licensed captains, and administered commercial law. 

In theory, no Spaniard could sail anywhere without the approval of the Casa.

first slave sugar factory - Ingenio Boca de Nigua - 1505.

Ingenio Boca de Nigua are the ruins of  the first colonial sugar mill in the Americas. 

The mill consist in a group of buildings constructed with brick and stone masonry, among these structures there is boiler house and a two-story building. 

The ground floor has a vaulting web ceiling and was used for the installation of ovens; while the second floor served for the installation of cauldrons or pails in a continuous arrangement. 

The mill, with a polygonal plan, is reinforced on each side by masonry buttresses covered with bricks .

The Ingenio de Boca was the location of the first slave revolt (October 30, 1796) which precipitated the abolishment of slavery in the Americas.

first tax collector's office - Casa de Bastidas - 1505.

Captain Rodrigo de Bastidas, the Almojarife Mayor (Principal Royal Tax Collector) and governor of Santo Domingo, built this to be his residence. 

It is not constructed in the normal style of the time. It more resembled a warehouse, not an estate where people were to live. 

It was built this way to have two functions, 1. a residence, and 2. as a storehouse and safe to keep the Crown revenues and treasure until they could be sent to Spain.

first national park - Parque Colon - 1506.

Inaugurated in 1506 as Plaza Mayor de Santo Domingo Square, it didn’t begin to be called Colón Park until 1887. 

Parque Colón/Columbus Park, named after the Admiral Cristobal Colón, is one of the most popular parks in the Colonial Zone. 

The plaza is surrounded by historical buildings (the first Colonial houses throughout all the continent were built around it). With its large trees and shaded benches, it is the perfect spot to sit, relax and watch people. 

During Colonial times, the square was a place  for social events and parties.

first monastery - Ruinas de Monasterio San Francisco - 1508.

Sitting atop a hill, looming, surrounded by an iron fence sits almost 2 blocks of buildings in ruins. 

The Ruins of the San Francisco Monastery are a very humbling sight to behold. 

Looking both majestic and eerie. It’s menacing, eerie feeling is multiplied when you walk close and see the holes in the land surrounding the building.

In the evening the ruins seem to heighten in magnitude and mysteriousness. The lights shining on these abandoned and falling stone walls give it an immense forlorn and desolate feeling.

first customs office - The Reales Atarazanas (Royal Shipyards) - 1509.

The Reales Atarazanas (Royal Shipyards) is a waterside complex that housed the shipyards, warehouses, customs house and tax offices of the old port of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 

It was the property of the Spanish Crown.

The Atarazanas is the oldest building of its type still standing in America.

It forms part of the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo World Heritage Site, and today house the Museo de las Atarazanas, which exhibits artifacts recovered from underwater archeology.

first convent - Convento de la Orden de los Predicadores - 1510.

With the arrival of Columbus to the island of Hispaniola in 1492 the process of colonization started. In Autumn 1508 the abbot general of the Order of the Dominicos sent word to the King of Spain that they needed to send representatives to Hispaniola. 

Finally, in 1510 it was agreed to send fifteen friars to Santo Domingo. 

When the delegated representatives started arriving they stayed in a meager wooden home. 

The person living there got booted so the friars had a place to stay.

The friars held meetings and gave their sermons in different parts of the city while waiting for the construction to be completed.

first palace - Alcazar de Colon - 1510.

The Alcazar de Colon was the Columbus family home. 

It was the home of Diego Columbus, the governor of the colony and Christopher Columbus’ son. 

The palace was the center of the Spanish Court for nearly 60 years. 

It served as the planning headquarters for the Spanish conquests of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guatemala, Peru, Florida, Colombia and Jamaica.

first african slaves arrived (250) - 1510.

The first black slaves arrived in Hispaniola in 1501, when Governor Nicolás de Ovando requested permission for his entourage to bring their domestic slaves with them.

In 1505, the Governor sent a request to King Fernando II asking for seventeen slaves to be sent to the mines in Hispaniola. 

The king was even more ambitious than Ovando about using slave labor to increase gold production, and sent one hundred black slaves from Spain directly to the governor. 

Five years later, in 1510, the “negro” slaves proved so effective that Ovando had 250 more slaves transported from Europe to work in the gold and copper mines. 

And so began the Trans Atlantic Slave trade.

first fight for human rights - 1511.

The Christmas Sermon delivered by Fray Antonio de Montesinos at the principal church - the Convento de la Orden de los Predicadores - advocating justice for the native peoples is widely considered as the first salvo in fight for human rights.

This speech gave rise to the Laws of Burgos whose 500-year old laws were a forerunner to current international law and its acknowledgment of human rights, as well as the child labor laws as we know them today.

first supreme court - Real Audencia de Santo Domingo - 1512.

The Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo was the first court of the Spanish crown in America. 

It was created by Ferdinand V of Castille in his decree of 1511.

The audiencia president was at the same time governor and captain general of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo, which granted him broad administrative powers and autonomy over the Spanish possessions of the Caribbean and most of its mainland coasts. 

This combined with the judicial oversight that the audiencia judges had over the region meant that the Santo Domingo Audiencia was the principal political entity of this region during the colonial period. 

first cathedral - Catedral de Santa Maria de la Menor - 1512 (in continuous service).

The full name of this marvelous cathedral is the Basilica Catedral Metropolitana Santa María de la Encarnación. 

Originally when this church was built in 1512 it was a hut made of royal palms. 

It now takes up an entire block.

Diego Columbus set the first stone of the cathedral in the Plaza Mayor, now known as Parque Colon.

first Catholic wedding - Catedral de Santa Maria de la Menor- 1512.

Have your wedding in the very same place, at the very same Cathedral as the very first Catholic wedding in the Americas - how about that for unique, substantial, unforgettable?

first fight against colonialism - Las Caritas - 1519 - revolt of chieftain Enriquillo in mountain range of Bahoruco

Enriquillo, also known as "Enrique" by the Spaniards, was a Taino cacique who rebelled against the Spaniards between 1519 and 1533. Enriquillo's rebellion is the best known rebellion of the early Caribbean period.

first university - Santo Tomas de Aquino Santo Domingo - 1538 (now Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo - UASD).

Founded during the reign of Charles I of Spain, it was originally a seminary operated by Catholic monks of the Dominican Order. 

Later, the institution received a university charter by Pope Paul III's papal bull In Apostulatus Culmine, dated October 28, 1538.

To put things in perspective, the oldest university in Canada is Universite Laval, which was  established in 1633. 

first central bank - Casa de Monedas - 1540.

Casa de la Moneda is also known as the House of Currencies.

It is named House of Medallions because of the five medallions with the human faces inside. 

There is one face above each pillar and the other three are centered above the doorway. 

The center face, an adolescent face with a hairstyle of that period, is thought to be the face of King Carlos the Fifth. 

Some say the other faces are the Kings faces also depicting his different ages. 

first commercial street - Calle el Conde - 1543.

Calle el Conde is the oldest commercial street in the city of Santo Domingo de Guzmán.

This pedestrian only street is named after the Count of Peñalva, Bernardo de Meneses y Bracamonte, the captain general of Santo Domingo. 

Calle el Conde is an 11 block long cobblestone street, which is lined with stores, restaurants, hotels, homes and a variety of businesses.

first fortified gate - Puerta de la Misericordia - 1543.

The Puerta de la Misericordia, originally named Puerta de Santiago and Puerta Grande, was the first fortified gate of the city of Santo Domingo. 

The gate was designed by the architect Rodrigo de Liendo and constructed in 1543. 

The gate received its current name, Puerta Misericordia (Gate of Mercy), in 1842, when the survivors of the many earthquakes and storms that had occurred on the island gathered at the gate to place the Blessed Sacrament thanking God for his mercy. 

The Puerta de la Misericordia is the place that Ramón Matías Mella fired his legendary blunderbuss (a muzzle-loading firearm) on February 27, 1844, to announce the independence of the Dominican Republic from Haiti, after taking back the Forteleza Ozama. 

At the same time of this shot, Francisco del Rosario Sanchez hoisted the Dominican flag in the Fortaleza. 

first official clock - Sundial of Santo Domingo - 1753.

The historical sun dial, Reloj de Sol, was erected during the reign of Carlos III in 1753.

The sun dial was used as the official time-teller in Santo Domingo. 

The face of the dial could be seen from the government offices in the Casas Reales. 

This way the government officials were able to record the correct time on official documents.

Today, some 271 years later, the sun dial still tells correct time.

first fight to abolish slavery - Ingenio Boca de Nigua - 1796 (october 30).

The Ingenio de Boca was the location of the first slave revolt (October 30, 1796) which precipitated the abolishment of slavery in the Americas.