Penthouse Pallazzo occupies the top floor of a townhouse built in the 1760s, in the part of Santo Domingo the Spanish laid out after they founded the city in 1498. UNESCO listed the Colonial City as a World Heritage Site in 1990 and describes it as the site of the first cathedral, hospital, customs house and university in the Americas, and its grid of streets as a model for town planners across the New World.
The house faces the sea front, where the monument to Fray Antón de Montesinos stands. Montesinos was a Dominican friar who preached in Santo Domingo in December 1511 against the abuse of the Taíno, a sermon that led to the Laws of Burgos the next year.
How to use this series
Each article covers one building, street, person or period, with the dates and names checked against the sources listed at the bottom of every page. Most places are a short walk from the house; each article ends with how to get there from the penthouse.
