The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern portion of Hispaniola, an island in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean that it shares with neighbouring Haiti. On the Dominican Republic's southern coast, at the mouth of the Ozama River, stands Santo Domingo, the country's capital and the first permanent European settlement in the Americas. This distinction has earned Santo Domingo the title of "Ciudad Primada", or First City, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage listing, for being one of the earliest records of how Europeans first approached the organization of urban settlements in the New World.
The story of this city actually begins with Christopher Columbus himself. During his second voyage to America in 1493, Columbus learned that "Fuerte de la Navidad" (Nativity Fort), founded a year earlier, had been destroyed following a conflict with the local Taíno population. This led to the settlement's relocation to La Isabela, on Hispaniola's northeastern coast, in 1494. However, following the discovery of gold deposits along the island's southern coast, a new settlement was established in 1496: Santo Domingo, on the eastern bank of the Ozama River, founded by Columbus's brother Bartholomew Columbus.
