Archaeological and Historical National Park of Pueblo Viejo, La Vega

Description

The municipality of La Vega limits to the North and the west with Santiago's county, to the South, with the county Duarte, and to the East and Southeast, with the county Sánchez. La Concepción de la Vega began with the foundation of the fortress of the same name, built for Christopher Columbus in 1495 at the feet of the Sacred Hill. At the arrival of the Spaniards the area was the seat of the Guaricano, center of the cacicazgo of Magua, governed by the cacique Guarionex. Around the fortress and the mining exploitation in the area the city was developed. The first construction of the fortress was in wood and the ruins that remain correspond to the third and last version of the same; it is very probable that initially it was next at the Guaricano to bank of the river Verde. The area is occupied by some 21 families of the place that claim to the State its right of property. These areas were in the beginning occupied by some families, relocated from The Castle, La Isabela. Nowadays the lands of the area are property of the Dominican state. History and development: History: The Concepción's Villa acquired the city category in 1508 when it is granted the real privilege of nobiliary coat of arms due to its importance in diverse aspects. There the first currency was minted and the first merchants settled down, it produced for the time first sugar cane, the first archbishosite of the island was erected, the first lndians were Christianized, and the first sung mass was officiated. It is here where began the first procedures in wall construction, mud and brick in America. Development: Their initial development had to be laid the foundation in the foundry of gold and the cultivation and prosecution of the cane of sugar. The splendor of this medieval city was owed mainly to that gold and the beautiful wood that grew wild in the countrysides that- was exported to Spain by the colonial hosts.