The best of Santo Domingo walking tour
Together with a professional guide, you will visit the most charming places in the city. You will have a chance to explore the city while hearing fascinating facts and legends. It was the Santo Domingo Tsachila people that attracted tourists from all over the world in the 1960s. What made the Tsachila people so special? What was so unique and charming about their lifestyle? What was the meaning behind the red braids? You will be surprised how many stories are hidden in the streets, buildings, and corners of Santo Domingo. Your charming guide will tell you what is special and unique about living in this city. Perfect for those visiting the city for the first time and wanting to get the most out of it!
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1
Fortaleza Ozama
The Ozama Fortress, originally known as the Homage Tower on the city wall. It is one of the remaining parts of the Santo Domingo Walls, which UNESCO recognizes as the oldest military fortification of European origin in the Americas and was designated as a World Heritage Site together with the other historical monuments of the Ciudad Colonial. The Spanish erected it between 1502 and 1508 at the gateway of Santo Domingo's Ciudad Colonial, Dominican Republic, overlooking the Ozama River. The castle, which is named after this river, is also known as "La Fortaleza" or "The Fortress."
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2
Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación
The Catedral Primada de América, also known as the Catedral de Santo Domingo or the Baslica Menor of Santa Mara de la Encarnación, is an American cathedral and minor basilica dedicated to Saint Mara de la Encarnación. It is the oldest Cathedral in the Americas, erected by Pope Julius II in 1504 on Arzobispo Merio and Isabela La Católica streets in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo. The cathedral's architecture is Gothic in style, with ribbed vaults, solid walls, and three doors, two of which are Gothic in contrast to the third and major one, which is Plateresque Gothic in style. has a huge creative heritage consisting of altarpieces, paintings (including a table of the Virgen de la Altagracia from 1523), antique cabinets, furniture, monuments, and tombstones, among other things.
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3
Columbus Park
The principal center of Santo Domingo's Ciudad Colonial historic neighborhood is Parque Colon, often known as Columbus Park. A monument of Christopher Columbus stands in the center, and the square was renamed in his honor in 1887. The square was once known as Plaza Mayor. The Catedral de Santa Maria la Menor, Santo Domingo's Municipal Palace, and the Palacio Borgella, which originally housed the Dominican Republic's Parliament, all flank the square. Calle del Conde, previously Santo Domingo's vibrant business centre, stretches from Parque Colon to the Puerta del Conde. A bust of Bartholomew Columbus, Christopher's brother and the founder of Santo Domingo, stands at the start of Calle del Conde.
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4
Pantheon of the Fatherland
The National Pantheon was once a Jesuit church and was erected from 1714 to 1746 by the Spaniard Geronimo Quezada y Garçon. The building was built in the neoclassical-renaissance style. Today, the structure is a Dominican Republic national symbol and the final resting place of the Republic's most illustrious citizens. It was utilized as a tobacco warehouse before becoming the first Dominican theater for solely artistic reasons by the association Amantes de las Letras in 1860 until 1878, when it became theater La Republicana, which ran until 1917. Until 1956, it held government offices. By order of dictator Rafael Trujillo, Spanish architect Javier Borroso rebuilt the monument in 1956 to fit its new role as a national tomb. Originally, Trujillo intended to be buried at the National Pantheon, but it is now the site of the country's most prominent people, including Trujillo's murderers.
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5
Museum of the Royal Houses
The Museo de las Casas Reales, or Museum of the Royal Houses, is one of the most prominent cultural monuments created in Hispaniola, now the Dominican Republic, during the colonial era. It is located in Santo Domingo's Colonial district. It was the Viceroy's Palace in Santo Domingo and is the original (and oldest) seat of Spanish sovereignty in the New World. The edifice was constructed in the sixteenth century to house the administrative offices of the Spanish colonies in the Americas, during a time when trespassers were punished to death. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the Colonial City of Santo Domingo.