Monuments to visit Dominican Republic

The Palacio Consistorial was built in the 19th century to house the town hall. It is located near the Parque Nacional, a place where the local population lives and passes through. The Palace is today the cultural center of the city with a museum (free) which recalls the history of Santiago through photographs dating from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Unfortunately it is not very well furnished, nevertheless you will observe an exhibition on the costumes of the famous carnival. From the floor, beautiful sight on a part of the city.

Symbol of the city of Santiago, planted in the center of a flowery esplanade, on a hill at the periphery of the city center, it was erected in the 1940s as a monument to the Peace of Trujillo. It is a 67 m high white marble structure topped by a column. The interior has four levels that house a series of small museums without real interest. From its top (which can be reached on foot or by elevator), one discovers a superb view of Santiago and the Cibao valley.

This six-storey palace, built on Trujillo's orders on a hill overlooking the city in the 1930s, is a massive concrete building with no particular charm. Its construction was entrusted to the engineer Henry Gazón. The dictator never occupied the place, but he had the walls decorated with frescos of the famous Spanish painter José Vela Zanetti (1913-1999). The palace was transformed into a hotel in the 1970s and then abandoned in the late 1990s, before renovations were undertaken.

For those curious about the Trujillo era, the dictator's country house, once lined with mahogany on the inside (hence the name mahogany house), contains an important collection of objects that belonged to him. It is located a few kilometers from the city, at the end of a stony track that should be restored. To get there, in fact, you have to go towards La Toma and turn left at the aqueduct. This is not a priority visit on your trip, but it can be arranged while exploring the surroundings.

The building, which houses the headquarters of the San Cristóbal Town Hall, was inaugurated in 1937. Easily recognizable by the small tower - on the top of which stands a clock - flanked by a one-story building, it was built entirely of reinforced concrete, in an architectural style of baroque-victorian inspiration, typical of the beginning of the last century. Because of its design and its representation in Dominican architecture, it has been declared "Cultural Heritage of the Dominican Republic". A construction that deserves a quick look.

These are the remains of the old city, located 10 km south of Azua. According to oral tradition, the remains of the cacique Enriquillo were buried in the colonial church of Santa María de Azua. El Pueblo Viejo de Azua is still inhabited (about 5,000 people) and its population is still growing. But it is in the new Azua that the main activities are concentrated, obviously. A passage which does not have great interest but which can prove to be a stopover on your road and discovery of the Dominican Republic.

This monument pays homage to Antonio de Montesinos, a Dominican priest and defender of the American Indian peoples under the Spanish Empire. Donated by Mexico in 1982, the bronze and limestone structure depicts the priest delivering his famous sermon on December 21, 1511 against the injustices suffered by the natives. He even threatened excommunication and denied the sacraments to the large landowners who enslaved the natives in the mines and fields.