First church of the new world

[suarezn]

Ok...This is how it goes. When Columbus first set foot in Hispaniola he did so in Isabela (Puerto Plata area). Here was the first settlement and the site of the first mass and first church (small church).

After a couple of decades, when they had explored most of the island and the area around Santo Domingo was being settled, they built the cathedral (mentioned in the first response) which is a much larger church and still stands across from Parque Colon as Rafael mentioned. This is the one most tourists visit and are told is the "first church of the new world". In reality the one in Isabela was there before, but being smaller is not as famous.

Hope that clears it up...

[qgrande]

[QUOTE=suarezn;448522]Ok...This is how it goes. When Columbus first set foot in Hispaniola he did so in Isabela (Puerto Plata area). Here was the first settlement and the site of the first mass and first church (small church).

After a couple of decades, when they had explored most of the island and the area around Santo Domingo was being settled, they built the cathedral (mentioned in the first response) which is a much larger church and still stands across from Parque Colon as Rafael mentioned. This is the one most tourists visit and are told is the "first church of the new world". In reality the one in Isabela was there before, but being smaller is not as famous.QUOTE]

Yes, albeit that the Cathedral Primada isn't the oldest curch of Santo Domingo; the Convento de la Orden de los Predicadores is. The Cathedral was finished in 1540, the Convento in 1510, and still stands and in usage at Calle Padre Bellini (about halfway the street at the little square with I think a Duarte statue). The church at La Isabela doesn't exist anymore. So the Cathedral isn't the oldest church and not even the oldest church still standing, but that's what the tourists are told (probably because it looks bigger and more spectacular, and is closer to the souvenir shops ).

[NALs]

La Catedral Santa Maria la Menor (sometimes referred as Santa Maria de la Encarnacion) is the oldest cathedral in the hemisphere.

Which is the oldest church depends on technicalities which could take you from Mexico to Puerto Plata area to Santo Domingo east - Capilla de los Remedios which is next to the Molinos Dominicano building is the oldest structure in Santo Domingo area. Everything in the Colonial Zone was built after Capilla de los Remedios was built, thus....

The oldest university of the new world was originally named Universidad Santo Tomas de Aquino. It was later renamed Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo and it was moved to its more modern campus in Ciudad Universitaria. However the old university building in the Colonial Zone is still standing.

The oldest hospital of the new world was Hospital San Nicolas de Bari. Unfortunately, today the hospital is in ruins.

The oldest monastery of the new world was the Monasterio de San Francisco, which also lays in ruins. However, whatever is still standing is a miracle, given all the disasters this structure suffered through the years.

The oldest street in the new world is Calle Las Damas. The street "meaning street of the ladies" was not named such to mean red light district, but rather because the ladies of the viceroy and other prominent figures (among them Maria de Toledo, niece of Charles V) used to walk down the street from the Plaza de España to the docks in the hopes of seeing their husbands arriving from sea. Such procession became a tradition and thus, the name of the street came to be.

The oldest tunnel in the new world connects the Cathedral of Santa Maria with the Casa Sacramento. The tunnel is not opened to the public, but it is there and was built so the bishop could transfer himself from the Casa Sacramento to the Cathedral without having to step outside.

The oldest fortress in the new world is NOT the Ozama Fortress, but rather the Fortaleza de San Felipe located in Puerto Plata.

The Casa del Cordon was the first structure with two floors built in the new world.

The Casa de Tostado has the only surviving Gothic window in the new world.

I hope this helps.

-NALs

[M.A.R.]

Beautiful Nals, it is still fresh in my memory, I visited all those places in August and my children enjoyed it very much. They were complaining as to why they had to go to the Capital from the campo, but after they visited all these places they were glad they did. I love the ruins of the convent de San Francisco.

[piñacolada]

Some people said that La capilla del Rosario is the oldest one. It's located in the east border of the Ozama River. Here some info: Santo Domingo Colonial - Monumentos

[London_Calling]

Nals - by referring to the New World are you citing the first Spanish/European examples? I am sure the Americas had streets, two floors structres, centers of learning/universities, hospitals and fortresses long before Columbus arrived - plenty of examples in Peru, Mexico Central America.

[Hillbilly]

While my vote still goes for the ruins in La Isabela, Nals has made a very interesting contribution, and one that goes into my SAVE box. Thanks.

As for streets? Okay.
Centers for learning? No so sure. The temples of the Maya and Aztecs may have been centers for some spiritual or comtemplative activity but as for education, per se, I have not seen anything to indicate this.
Hospitals? You are joking! The concept was foreign to Incas, Aztecs or Maya...at least as far as i have read on this. They had medicine men, but I have not seen any indications that there were specific buildings to treat sick or injured....
Fortresses>?? Again, where? Tenochitlan? Cuzco>? Sorry, I cannot remember one single structure of the pre-Colombian world dedicated to war or defense.

Massive structures were created in Cuzco, for example, but they were not solely for defense, and had little capacity to repel or kill attckers, except for their sheer size...

Perhaps we should re-define the parameters...

HB

[macocael]

The Capilla del Rosario, which you see across the river if you stand in the Plaza España, was built later than the church on Billini mentioned earlier --but that structure was built over an older structure which may well be the first church of St Domingo: "La Capilla del Rosario fue construida sobre los cimientos de la vieja iglesia de troncos y paja fundada por el propio Bartolomé Colón." St Domingo was originally started on the Eastern shore of the Ozama, but they scrapped that quickly and moved to the present site.

As Nals will surely tell you, this city is unique, at least insofar as its churches -- there is no other colonial city that I know of like it, because it was planned as the seat of the new Vatican, the ecclesiastical center of the New World. our city is surrounded by a fortress wall and a chain of beautiful churches: San Lazaro, Santa Barbara, San Carlos, La Mercedes etc. (La Mercedes is not on the walls, but in the center). Santa Barbara was not just a church but a fort, and if you are brave enough, you can walk through the overgrowth behind it, scale the wall, and view the colonial city from the fortress ramparts where the cannon still lie there. Unfortunately, the ayuntamiento and UNESCO have done nothing to keep these areas cleaned up.

But this city was remarkable for another reason: it was an expression of the nascent Humanism of the time and its grid layout was one of the first, if not the first, expressions of modern urban planning. The city is interesting because it displays two sometimes conflicting drives which are reflected in its structure and planning: modern Humanism and Ecclesiastical Scholasticism. If you want to read a somewhat poetic reflection on this theme, consult my blog.