Puerto Plata

Columbus sighted the coast on his first voyage and named the mountain above it Monte de Plata, the silver mountain. In the early 16th century Spanish settlers founded a small port here, which for the first decades of the colony was the island's main commercial and maritime harbour, and between 1564 and 1577 the Fortaleza San Felipe was built to guard it. Smuggling with foreign traders brought ruin: in 1605, in the Devastations of Osorio, the Spanish crown emptied and destroyed the town to cut off contact with pirates and privateers. About a century later it was resettled by farmers from the Canary Islands.

Haiti controlled the city from 1822 to 1844. During the Restoration War against renewed Spanish rule it was razed completely in 1863. Rebuilding began in 1865, helped by immigrants from France, Italy, Germany, England and elsewhere in Europe, and its streets filled with Victorian houses. In 1879, under the interim government of Gregorio Luperón, a native of the city, a cast-iron lighthouse went up on the seafront.

In the 20th century the city turned to tourism. The cable car up Isabel de Torres opened in 1975, and resort zones grew east of the centre at Playa Dorada and Costa Dorada. Cruise tourism followed, with the Amber Cove terminal at Maimón opening in 2015 and Taíno Bay, closer to the city, in December 2021.

Puerto Plata's identity is tied to its Victorian architecture, the result of the European immigration that followed the Restoration War, and to its role as the historic gateway of the north coast. The central square, with its octagonal Victorian gazebo, is the town's living room, where the municipal band gives concerts and musicians play on Sundays.

Carnival has been celebrated here since at least the late 19th century. Each year its organisers choose a King Momo to preside, and masked groups take over the streets in February and March. The cathedral of St Philip the Apostle, rebuilt after fire and repaired after earthquakes, is the heart of Catholic life.

Amber, mined in the mountains behind the coast, gives the city its own museum and a trade in jewellery, and rum is part of local pride: one of the country's best-known rum makers bottles its rum in the city. Many residents speak English as a second language through their work in tourism.

Puerto Plata is one of the most populous cities of the north and the capital of its province. Tourism and agribusiness lead the economy, with resorts, guesthouses, tour operators and cruise passengers, but port activity, crafts, fishing, and the trade in textiles and footwear also support parts of the population.

The centre is a working town of shops, offices, schools and the market streets around the square, while the resort zones to the east have their own rhythm of arrivals and departures. Residential districts spread inland from the old town towards the foot of the mountain, and beach communities stretch west along the coast to Cofresí and Costámbar.

The day starts early, with guaguas and motoconchos filling the streets. On Sundays families head for the beaches and the Malecón, and in the evening the seafront fills with people walking, eating and listening to music. Cruise days bring crowds of visitors to the centre and the fort for a few hours at a time.

Puerto Plata eats the Dominican staples — la bandera of rice, beans and stewed meat at lunch, mangú at breakfast — with the seafood of the Atlantic coast. Fried fish with tostones, fried green plantain, is the classic meal by the sea, and small local restaurants are known for sopa de pescado, a hearty fish soup.

The Malecón has the town's busiest restaurants and bars, where fish and seafood are served with a view of the waves, and the streets around the central square hold comedores serving home cooking to people working in the centre. Street carts sell chimichurris, the Dominican burger, and fried pastelitos.

Rum is the drink. Brugal, whose founder settled in Puerto Plata in 1897, still bottles its rum here, and Brugal and Barceló are the two most popular brands. Mamajuana, rum steeped with bark and herbs, is sold in bottles all over town, and Presidente beer and fresh fruit batidos are drunk everywhere.