EL ALCAZAR DE COLON - COLOMBUS' CASTLE

Built in the 1520s, the palace was primarily constructed in Italian Renaissance style with some gothic details. The main entrance, however, was designed in Isabeline style. The building comprises of two rectangular floors, two wings joined by a central corridor and two galleries. In 1770 the building was abandoned. Attempts were made to turn it into a prison, but none were successful. In 1809 and 1835 major landslides collapsed parts of the building, but in 1957 it was restored by stonemasons to its present condition.

Palace Reconstruction

The Spanish architect Javier Barroso, on the orders of the Dominican government began in 1955 remodeling of the ruins of the old palace of Diego Columbus. The inauguration of the work was carried out in 1957. The architect explained the criteria on which based its work at the building site: PALACE OF COLON DIEGO - MEMORY. The fragment which is reproduced below gives an idea of those criteria.

"Hence, it follows, therefore, that we have followed the rule to draw the plans for reconstruction: firstly respect all the signs of what was the palace, on the other hand, make up what is lacking through the use of the elements architectural corresponding to the time and that are, so to speak, in the face of a building of this kind. Ultimately, the greatest significance of historic buildings is that they are the ones who make over time to resurrect the past, and belies the same death. Respect for the power of evocation has to be at the very foundation of any task of reconstruction, and more if, as in this case we have a memorial that we can consider unique in the history of the Continent Colombina because attests to the dawn of a chapter Life in the West is that, after the coming of Christ, the most important thing recalls the human memory.

Indeed, the House of Admiral or Palace of Columbus, was built between the years 1510 1514 and makes Hispaniola thereafter, and the Dominican Republic today, the portico that the time and space leads to the awakening of the New World. An awakening that took its crises, their sacrifices, their mistakes, their infighting, but nevertheless leaves intact the essence of the glory Hispanic. To the visitor feel deep emotion when he returns to step on the hallway where servers Spain and the Catholic faith left to hear the echo of your comments! Who can escape the living memory of that court in these halls and after those same walls wrote the first chapter of the social and political life of the current Dominican Republic!

It is almost certain that within the Palace died Adelantado Don Bartholomew Columbus, and that since he organized expeditions that were gradually enlarging the size of the world and human knowledge in completing the existence of a world infinitely more varied and rich what course civilizations that had until then only looked at themselves. If you pause for a moment look on the situation of the world today and we see the specific weight that the New Continent noted in all major decisions, for the happiness the same as for the misfortune, understand the magnitude spiritual and symbolic than the House Admiral, which is the foundation stone of a vast construction spiritual where they live today and read millions and millions of people with enormous economic resources, scientific, cultural, and that in one way or another meet in the Palace where the shrine every American, North, Central or South return to the origins of life, as members of one race and a civilization.

So any use consistent with the symbolic significance that today is the House of Admiral of the museum. A museum where the history of Discovery and Colonization can enter through the eyes of visitors through the mapping of legal institutions, architectural reproductions of the documentation that comes to be a whole family tree of this wonderful New World in which today have placed their hopes and their admiration Old World Europe. It will not be necessary to change anything in the internal distribution of the Palace, which is clear and definite, and that is coupled to the design perfectly sketched and converting it into a museum. But it is clear that the interior decoration requires reaffirm the invigorating nature of this work restorer at the side away any temptation of functionalism in buildings without history is even plausible, but here constitute a violation of the truth. It will therefore Palace, rooms and these rooms will have furniture of the era, and re replenished in a kitchen leading to morale visitor the feeling that time has not passed and that the city of Santo Domingo is maintained against erosion day and the centuries the great mansion where the son of the Discoverers continued the task of his father and their kings. In a part of that interior, furnished some dormitories, so that the museum also plays the role of giving an accurate idea of what was in its day.

Most of the space will engage, however halls and steps equipped with furniture from its proper use, needed to remove the palace rebuilt the coldness of buildings dedicated to exhibitions. Because of what essentially is is to collect the memories alive in the form of documentary value, and domiciliarlos, so to speak, in the house that belongs to them in their own right. Thus, men and things that constitute a historic unity within the House of Admiral. The maps, portraits, books, weapons are to be found in the palace in the service of all the continuity of the Discovery, as if the discovery was happening at every moment, which contradicts the logic but favors poetry."

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