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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Travel Guide
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Santo Domingo Museums 1
Museums: In the Zona Colonial
Museo de las Atarazanas (Maritime Museum)
This maritime museum displays recovered items – including valuable coins and bars of silver – from the 16thcentury Spanish galleon, Guadeloupe, which sank in Samaná Bay during a hurricane.
Banco de Reservas
While this is a bank, not a museum, it does display an enormous painting by José Vela Zanetti in the lobby and is well worth a stop (as is the bank building itself, an Art Deco classic). Zanetti, a social-realist painter and severe critic of the Spanish Civil War, lived in exile in the Zona Colonial until he was exiled from here, too – reputedly for portraying campesinos with sad faces in a painting commissioned by Trujillo (Trujillo interpreted the sad faces as criticism of his regime). Further works by Zanetti can be seen at the Museo Bellapart (see below), the cathedral in San Cristóbal (west of Santo Domingo), and – although now badly defaced – among the ruins of Trujillo’s former hilltop palace in San Cristóbal.
Museo de las Casas Reales (Museum of the Royal Houses)
The 16th-century building that once served as the seat of administration for the Spanish Crown in the New World now houses a museum exhibiting Taino artifacts and other relics of the Colonial era, including a rickshaw that ferried officials around the Old City and a re-creation of a 16th-century apothecary. A second-floor room houses an extensive and impressive collection of weaponry donated by Rafael Trujillo.
Museo Duarte (Duarte Museum)
Juan Pablo Duarte, revered by Dominicans for bringing about the country’s independence from Haiti and forming the Dominican Republic, was born in this house. While it’s not worth a special trip, you may want to stop in if you’re in the neighborhood. ( 809-687-1436; Calle Isabel La Católica 308 and Celestino Duarte; open Tues- Fri, 8:30 am-2 pm, Sat, 8:30 am-noon; RD $20.)
Museo de la Familia Dominicano Siglo XIX (Museum of the 19th-Century Dominican Family)
The museum inside Casa de Tostado – one of the most prominent homes in the Old City – provides a glimpse into how well-to-do Dominican families lived during the early 19th century. Besides being decked out in beautiful antique furnishings, a stunning mahogany staircase spirals to the roof, where you can catch views over the city.
Last updated November 24, 2007
Posted in Dominican Republic | Santo Domingo
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