August 5 - Foundation Day in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Posted on August 5, 2021

Key Points

This is an update of my post published on August 5, 2010:

This holiday celebrates the establishment of Santo Domingo in 1498. Actually, Spaniards (under Christopher Columbus himself) began to settle in this area as early as 1496, making Santo Domingo the oldest European city anywhere in the Americas. It became the largest city and the capital of the Dominican Republic.

Santo Domingo in 1671

The Dominican Republic is located on the same island (Hispaniola) as Haiti. The Dominican Republic has a tropical climate with way too many hurricanes.

Santo Domingo is steeped in history.

The oldest cathedral in the Americas, Catedral de Santa Maria la Menor, is found here and is lovely with its golden-colored coral-limestone facade and silver high altar. It is believed that Christopher Columbus’s remains were in that cathedral, although they have been relocated to the Columbus Lighthouse, which was built to commemorate the 500^th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of the New World (in 1992).

Santo Domingo is a port city located on the spot where the Ozama River meets the Caribbean Sea. Port cities along the banks of important rivers tend to be some of the biggest, oldest, most important cities of an area—naturally, since water-based transportation was and is so crucial to buying and selling crops, resources, and manufactured goods.

Did you know…?

According to Wikipedia, the Dominican Republic has the largest economy in the Caribbean and Central American region, and it is the top tourist spot of the Caribbean, too. This sure surprised me! I always hear about people going to Jamaica or the Bahamas…Much more rarely the Dominican Republic!

I just don’t know why anyone would want

to go to the Dominican Republic LOL!

The Dominican Republic has the Caribbean’s highest mountain, largest lake, and lowest elevation. There are tons of golf courses, which bring lots of tourists.

Pico Duarte doesn’t look all that high to me – but it’s over 10,000 feet (3,000 m)!

Lago Enriquillo – the largest salt water lake in the world – has more than 400 species of alligators!!

There are 26 golf courses in the Dominican Republic.

Another sport important to the Dominican Republic is baseball. Every town has a team and a field, and many Dominican players become Major League Baseball players—this tiny country contributes more players to MLB than any country other than the U.S.!