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Santiago de los Caballeros

City in Santiago, Dominican Republic

  • 24 min read
  • 12 chapters
Picture taken from the Monument of Santiago.
derivative work: Fogster ( talk ) [2] : ChezSant · CC BY-SA 3.0

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Founded in 1495 during the first wave of European settlement in the New World, the city is the "first Santiago of the Americas". Today it is one of the Dominican Republic's cultural, political, industrial and financial centers. Due to its location in the fertile Cibao Valley, it has a robust agricultural sector and is a leading exporter of rum, textiles, and cigars. Santiago is known as "La Ciudad Corazón" (the "Heartland City").

Santiago de los Caballeros was an important strategic city in the Dominican War of Independence. The city's name, Saint James of the Knights, refers to the Hidalgos de la Isabela, a group of knights who came from La Isabela city to stay in Santiago. Sometimes, the city is called Santiago de los 30 Caballeros (English: Saint James of the 30 Knights).

History

The name of the city (Saint James of the Knights) refers to the Hidalgos de la Isabela, a group of knights who had come from La Isabela to settle in Santiago. The colony was originally located in San Francisco de Jacagua (now a suburb of the city), founded in 1495. Still, when an earthquake destroyed it, it was moved to its current location in 1506. In granting in 1508 the Royal Privilege of Concession de Armas to the Villa de Santiago of Hispaniola, the heraldic emblem that was included in his shield was venerated. The royal decree was signed by King Ferdinand as administrator of the kingdoms of his daughter Joanna I of Castile.

The city was devastated by another earthquake on December 2, 1562. The survivors settled on land belonging to Petronila Jáquez of Minaya, adjacent to the Yaque del Norte, which is the current location of the city's river. The brief French during the Peace of Basel (which yielded the Spanish part of the island to France in 1795) left its mark on Santiago. Santiago was returned to Spain under the Peace of Paris of 1814. During the 19th Century, Santiago began its modern urban planning. European neoclassicism is represented at the Palace Hall, built between 1892 and 1895, by a Belgian architect named Louis Bogaert. The late 1800s saw a peak of architecture in the city. Numerous residences were built in European styles, and make up the central core of Santiago.

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