The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

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necessary to determine which natural defenses could be used and as such best capitalize on the various offen-

sive strategies that the defense system needed to resist.

During the many trips that Battista Antonelli made to the Americas, he more than once had to forego visit-

ing the island, in spite of the Royal Warrant from King Philip II, issued in 1586. In said decree, the King ordered

Battista to explore the coasts to build new fortresses or to plan improvement of those already existing. Santo

Domingo was included among the places indicated by the King, but Antonelli only reached the island on April

25, 1589, along with the engineer Tejada, three years after the siege by Sir Francis Drake.

The capital already had the Ozama Fortress, and there was a plan to construct some walls to fortify the

city’s perimeter in a modern fashion. However, the capital had already lost a great deal of its political impor-

tance and its commercial prosperity, and the enclosure planned for the new walls in addition to being weak

and ineffective was also rather far from the urban center. Whoever had created it certainly believed that the

city would continue its growth at the same pace as during the early sixteenth century. It was, however, a

prediction that would not materialize. Antonelli created a new plan for the walls, bringing them closer to the

city and adding alternative bulwarks along their entire length, with the addition of fortresses to improve the

precision and distribution of the bulwarks and the cannons.

The new and lower defensive wall included a small external trench, associated with ground motion that

minimized the presence of the batteries which amplified the scenic effect of the bulwarks. The outer system

was adorned with watchtowers and included a series of bulwarks that were equipped for shooting and fortified

doors. Only some features of these structures remain today, visible within the urban layout of Santo Domin-

Activities related to

the assessment and

documentation by

the research group

from the University of

Pavia and UNPHU -

Universidad Nacional

Pedro Henríquez

Ureña, the objective of

which is the study of

the colonial defense

system of Santo

Domingo. In particular,

images are shown of

the workshop created

on the northeast

outline of the city.