The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

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capital, incorporating an unprecedented number of

functions –presidential palace, national congress,

municipal seats, courts, central post office, nation-

al library, central police, cathedral, ministries, hos-

pitals, barracks, museums, etc.– but they also dis-

tribute them within the provincial capitals. In turn,

countries with limited resources must settle for the

monumentalization of the presidential palace or the

Palace of Justice, erected in the vicinity of the pre-

carious colonial buildings.”

In Santo Domingo, this analogy can be seen in

two structures erected within the context of the

Monumentalist rhetoric that underpinned the ide-

ological discourse of the Trujillo dictatorship (1930-

1961).

Both are “palaces,” following the inherit-

ed tradition of reifying and symbolizing power by

means of formal codes taken from classical forms. In these particular instances, they were filtered through a

sort of eclecticism that rendered the aesthetic intentions almost Baroque in their artistic effects. Created dur-

ing the Centenary of the Republic, a period of construction and commemoration, the Dominican National

Palace and the Palace of Justice are dissimilar in the use of resources for their imagery. Yet they reflect the

principles espoused by Roberto Segre, as demonstrated by their locations, which are not far from “the precar-

ious Colonial buildings,” and due to both of them having been created as part of a formal attempt to present

one single image, topped by a vaulted dome.

The Palace of Justice erected in 1944—based on a design by Mario Lluberes Abreu (1906-1967)—was built

on a block situated only a hundred meters from the walls that separated the original historic center from the

rest of the city, which was expanding to the west and to the north. In the residential neighborhood that would

grow at the beginning of the 20th century under the name of Ciudad Nueva, or New City—a clear allusion

to the fact that it was leaving the past behind—the rest of the city was built; it had grown only gradually and

within a very limited perimeter for almost four hundred years. The historicism of this building is very clearly

accentuated. Striated columns from the middle section adorn the façades, attempting to achieve an attractive,

texturized surface. The remainder consists of impeccable geometrization of the gaps and openings reserved

for the doors and windows.

In keeping with the commemorative nature of the Centenary of the Republic, the building resorts to a

formal code for identification that emphasizes the solidity and robustness necessary to provide a sense of sta-

bility and strength, as well as balance and security

(it is almost a perfect cube). In addition, its use and

purpose are by definition linked to the loftiest ideals

of humanism as the very foundation of all of society

itself. Thus, the impartiality of justice is represent-

ed by the invulnerability of forms that symbolically

guarantee its lofty purpose. Its colonnades affixed

to a sturdy and solid cubic structure, consisting of

slightly elevated planes and windows with Manner-

ist decorations, render it resistant to any attempts at

intrusion along its four façades. Its visible symmetry

is reflected in the rhythmic nature of the openings

for passage and ventilation, which are raised in com-

Map of Santo

Domingo showing

its boundaries, by

Casimiro N. De Moya.

Scale model of the

original proposal

for the Dominican

Republic’s

governmental

headquarters.

D’Alessandro Tavárez

family. Courtesy of José

Chez Checo

THE ITALIAN ENGINEER GUIDO D’ALESSANDRO LOMBARDI