Santo Domingo

Bartholomew Columbus founded Santo Domingo on the east bank of the Ozama in 1496, making it the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas. After a hurricane, Governor Nicolás de Ovando rebuilt it on the west bank from 1502, on the grid of streets that still shapes the Ciudad Colonial. For a few decades it was the seat of Spanish rule in the New World: the first cathedral, monastery, fortress and university of the Americas were built here, Diego Columbus ruled as governor from his palace above the river, and the Real Audiencia, the first court of the New World, sat here.

As the conquest moved to Mexico and Peru, the city declined. Francis Drake captured and ransomed it in 1586, a blow that marked the waning of Spanish power on Hispaniola. Over the following centuries the city passed between Spain, France and Haiti, until on 27 February 1844 Dominican independence was proclaimed at the Puerta del Conde and the first national flag was raised there.

In 1936 the dictator Rafael Trujillo renamed the capital Ciudad Trujillo; it took back its old name after his assassination in 1961. Fighting between rebels and the military in the city in 1965 brought a US intervention. Since then the capital has grown far beyond its walls into the largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean, and in 1990 UNESCO listed the Ciudad Colonial as a World Heritage Site.

The capital is the centre of Dominican cultural life, with the National Theatre, the Palace of Fine Arts and the museums of the Plaza de la Cultura in Gazcue. Music is everywhere: merengue, the national dance, has its own summer festival, bachata and salsa play in bars and colmados, and on Sunday evenings live bands fill the ruins of the San Francisco monastery with dancers, locals and visitors together. February belongs to carnival, when costumed groups and masked devils parade along the Malecón, reaching a peak around Independence Day.

Baseball, brought by the US Marines, is the most popular sport in the country, and Santo Domingo is home to two of the six teams of the professional winter league. The rivalry between the Tigres del Licey and the Leones del Escogido, who share the Estadio Quisqueya, divides families and offices.

Afro-Dominican traditions remain strong on the city's edges: the drumming brotherhood of the Congos de Villa Mella in the north is recognised by UNESCO. An evening on the Malecón or in a plaza is part of the week.

The 2022 census counted about 1.03 million people in the city itself — the Distrito Nacional — and about 4.27 million in Greater Santo Domingo, which spreads across the surrounding Santo Domingo province. The capital is the country's political, financial, commercial and industrial centre, its chief seaport, and the home of most of its industries, alongside government offices and universities, and it has a sizeable English-speaking population.

Wealth is sharply divided. Piantini, Naco and the streets around Mirador Sur have high-rise flats, malls and some of the most expensive property in the country, while marginalised barrios, mostly in the north-east of the city, live with slum conditions. Gazcue keeps an older, quieter middle-class character, and the Zona Colonial mixes residents with a growing number of guesthouses, restaurants and bars.

The day starts early to beat the traffic. Motorbikes, guaguas and carros públicos crowd the avenues, the metro carries commuters in from the north and east, and cable cars link outlying districts to it. Evenings end on the Malecón, in the plazas of the old city or outside a colmado with dominoes and a cold beer, and power cuts, the cost of living and the traffic are the constant talk.

The capital eats the national staples. Lunch is often la bandera — rice, red beans and stewed meat. Mangú is mashed green plantain served with fried cheese, salami and eggs, and sancocho, a thick stew of several meats and vegetables, is the national soup. Small comedores serve these at lunchtime to office workers across the city.

Fried food is the favourite snack: chicharrón, crisp fried pork; pica pollo, fried chicken, sold in the barrios; tostones, twice-fried green plantain; and pastelitos, fried pastries filled with meat or cheese. Street carts sell chimichurris, the Dominican burger. The Zona Colonial and Piantini have the capital's busiest restaurant scenes, and the Mercado Modelo lies close to the old city.

Morir soñando, orange juice mixed with milk and sugar, and batidos of fresh fruit cool the afternoon. In the evening the city drinks rum, mamajuana — rum and wine steeped with bark and herbs — and Presidente, the national beer.