Here are virtual tours of some of the museums in Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo Este, Puerto Plata, Santiago and Moca in the Dominican Republic. Some are in really old buildings from the XVI Century and others are of a much more recent creation. This by no means represents all the museums in each place and in the Dominican Republic in general. The ones with an * are among the most visited by tourists while others hardly get any tourists, instead are visted by Dominicans almost exclusively.
Museo Alcázar de Colón* (The son of Christopher Columbus, Diego Columbus, and his wife Charles V niece MarÃa de Toledo used to live here when he becane the first Viceroyal in the Americas in the early 1500's. This is located in Santo Domingo.)
https://museosrd.gob.do/museo-virtua...azar-de-colon/
Museo Fortaleza Ozama* (The oldest fortress in the Western Hemisphere and the Torre del Homenaje is the oldest and only medieval tower in the Western Hemisphere. This is located in Santo Domingo.)
https://museosrd.gob.do/museo-virtua...santo-domingo/
Museo de las Casas Reales* (This is located in Santo Domingo. This is the only one of its type in the Western Hemisphere. The museum has many artifacts from the early colonial period of Hispaniola and the era of discovery. It combines two palaces: The Palace of the Governor which is from where the Spanish governor of Santo Domingo ruled -the main entrance of the museum is through the main entrance of this palace which is under the office of the governor with the window with decorations around ir¡t- and The Palace of the Audiencia Real de Santo Domingo, the first royal court in the Western Hemisphere which at its greatest territory of jurisdiction included places as faraway as the Florida peninsula, now in the United States, all the islands of the Caribbean, the Venezuela and Colombia's Caribbean coasts, and parts of Central America. It should also be noted that across from the Palace of the Governor is a sundial from the 1700's that the governor used to look at from the window of his office in the palace to tell the time. This sundial still works. The palaces are from the 1500's.)
https://museosrd.gob.do/museo-virtua...-casas-reales/
Faro a Colón* (This one is in Santo Domingo Este neighboring Santo Domingo. The entire theme is the discovery of the Americas by Columbus and has artifacts of all the countries in the Western Hemisphere. The shape is in a Latin cross to signify the Christianization of the Americas and it has etch on its facades quotes from the Bible and outside the Pope mobile used by Pope John Paul II during his last and final visit of the country in 1992. This is symbolic lighthouse in reference to Columbus was a mariner and in the area where all parts of the cross meet are the remains of Christopher Columbus -Spain claims it has the remains too, so there is some controversy-.)
https://museosrd.gob.do/museo-virtua...eo-faro-colon/
Museo de la Familia Dominicana* (A look to what a typical house looked during colonial times in a well-to-do home in Santo Domingo. The building itself is one of the first two-storey home in the Western Hemisphere built in the early 1500's for Francisco Tostado. It also has the only gothic window built within the gothic time in the Western Hemisphere. Should be noted that the son of Francisco Tostado was killed when he was in the streets of Santo Domingo and a cannonball fired from one of the boats during the invasion of English pirate Sir Francis Drake in 1586 landed directly on him.)
https://museosrd.gob.do/museo-virtua...ia-dominicana/
Museo Fortaleza San Felipe* (This one is in Puerto Plata on the north coast and is the only fortress from the 1500's left on that side of the island. This is pne of the first fortresses built by the Spanish in the Western Hemisphere, older even than San Marcos Fortress in St Augustine, Florida or El Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico -though not remotely as big as this one-.)
https://museosrd.gob.do/museo-virtua...za-san-felipe/
Monumento de la Restauración de la República (A tour of the monument conmemorating the Restoration War 1863-1865 against Spain in Santiago de los Caballeros, second largest city in the Dominican Republic and the largest interior city in the Caribbean. Originally this monument was built by dictator Trujillo as "Paz de Trujillo" or Trujillo Peace as during his time the country had acheived the longest period of political and social stability. At the time it was built it was outside Santiago, but the city has grown and now is in the center of it. It continues to be the symbol of Santiago and the Cibao.)
https://museosrd.gob.do/museo-virtua...-restauracion/
Museo Casa Fuerte Juan Ponce de León (In Boca de Yuma near Higüey and Punta Cana is this house from the 1500's. It was the first house of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. From here he went to settle Puerto Rico and his remains are in the main cathedral in Old San Juan. He also discovered Florida and died there while searching for the fountain of youth.)
https://museosrd.gob.do/museo-virtua...ponce-de-leon/
Museo 26 de Julio (Located in Moca, this museum commemorates the spot where dictator Ulises Heareaux was killed in 1899, ending his dictatorship of the Dominican Republic. It also has a bust of the Moca native that killed him. Hereaux had caused mass business failures in the Dibso regarding the tobacco crop as his government forced tobacco producers to sell by obligation to the government at a depressed price, then the government would sell the tobacco to Germany at the prevailing global price and pocket the profits not giving nothing to the producers. I say it wss obvious that if he went to the Cibao he was going to be killed and that's exactly what happened.)
https://museosrd.gob.do/museo-virtua...o-26-de-julio/
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
