“Alcazar de Colon (Palacio de Diego Colon) in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo”
We visited this historical place on the 2nd week of October 2008, as part of the Santo Domingo City Tour (operated by “CoCo Tours” every Wednesday, from Punta Cana). The entrance fee was included in the $69.00 US price of the tour.
Location: The Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo, inside Plaza de España (off Calle Emiliano Tejera at the foot of Calle Las Damas) - Zona Colonial, Santo Domingo
Phone: [--]
Open daily from 9am until 5pm
The entrance fee: 20 Dominican pesos (less then $1.00 US)
If you’re interested in history in general and the Dominican culture in particular, I highly recommend this museum. Otherwise, you may find it boring, so either skip it or so you may want to visit it just to kill time on a rainy day, for example.
Alcazar de Colon - facade of the viceroy's palace, now a museum – is also known as “Palacio Virreinal de Don Diego Colon” (or “Palacio de Diego Colon”).
Christopher Columbus' son DIEGO became one of the earliest governors of the Indies in 1509 and he ordered the construction of this two-story family home and governor's mansion between 1510 and 1512. The building is an impressive construction of coralline blocks that once housed some fifty rooms and a number of gardens and courtyards (although what remains today is about half the size it once was).
Diego's wife was King Ferdinand's niece (named Maria de Toldeo) and they lived at this Alcazar de Colon - a palace built for them in the city of Santo Domingo.
During the early Spanish colonial period, this mansion occupied a very important place in history. It was from here that many expeditions of conquest and exploration were planned.
Christopher Columbus had two sons: DIEGO - the legitimate one, who lived off his father's connections, and illegitimate FERNANDO, his father's biographer. As son of the wealthy Felipa Perestrello Moniz, who came from a noble Portuguese family, DIEGO Colon enjoyed more privileges than his illegitimate brother Fernando. Fernando Colon was 18 when his father died and soon after that accompanied his older brother Diego to the New World in 1509 when Diego was appointed governor of Hispaniola (the present Dominican Republic).
The home/ museum is filled with colonial art and artifacts and is one of the can't-miss stop on any Santo Domingo tour. The nearly two dozen rooms and open-air loggias are decorated with paintings, period tapestries, and 16th-century antiques.
For example, in Diego’s office (“Despacho de Diego”), there is a great painting of Christopher Columbus and his son, Diego (realized in 1957 by the Spanish painter Rafael Pellicer). In addition, this office has a replica of his ship “Santa Maria.”
You may also want to check out the portraits of Isabela (Reina Isabel de Castilla – “La Catolica”) and Ferdinand (Rey Fernando de Aragon – “El catolico”) in the elegant Salon de Las Doncellas also know as “Salon de Reception” (by the same Spanish painter Rafael Pellicer, in 1957).
As the influence of Santo Domingo waned, this house felt into ruins, and by the mid 18th century was abandoned and in danger of rotting away. Fortunately, it was rescued and extensively restored between 1955 and 1957.
Located at the point where the Ozama River flows into the Caribbean Sea, the city of Santo Domingo has a fine artificial harbor accessible to most commercial and passenger ships (visible from the museum’s Eastern Gallery/ terrace. The other terrace – Western Gallery of the museum - offers a nice view of Plaza de España).
The stately two-story palace built by Christopher Columbus's son, Diego, overlooks the Ozama river and the large Plaza España. This Moorish-influenced coral-stone mansion is Santo Domingo's most impressive colonial site.
The recently restored and expanded Plaza de España is bordered by “Las Atarazanas,” filled with small shops and restaurants. This area was one of the first commercial centers in the Americas, and is still a hub of activity today.
The statue of Frey Nicolas de Ovando (a Spanish military leader and the first royal governor of the West Indies) can be seen in front of the Alcazar of Colon.
