Santo Domingo, the first planned European city in the Americas
Santo Domingo, la primera ciudad europea planificada de América
- Date
- 1502-1509 · confidence medium
- Place
- Colonial Zone, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
- Credited to
- Nicolás de Ovando, governor of Hispaniola
- Field
- Tools
What it is
After a hurricane, Ovando refounded the city in 1502 on the west bank of the Ozama with a grid of streets, a central plaza, cathedral and government buildings. Its orthogonal layout served as a pattern for the foundation of Spanish American cities.
The regularity of the layout was limited and completed over decades; the general rules of the 1573 Ordinances are later. It is 'the first' according to UNESCO in the sense of being the first permanent European city in the Americas.
What it led to
- a grid plan as the colonial urban model
- the first colonial institutions (audiencia, cathedral, hospital, university)
- UNESCO World Heritage Site (1990)