Santiago de los Caballeros

Sister cities

• Santiago de Compostela
• Santiago de Cuba

History

The name of the city (Saint James of the Knights) refers to the Hidalgos de la Isabela, a group of knights who had come from La Isabela to settle in Santiago. The colony was originally located in San Francisco de Jacagua (now a suburb of the city), founded in 1495. Still, when an earthquake destroyed it, it was moved to its current location in 1506. In granting in 1508 the Royal Privilege of Concession de Armas to the Villa de Santiago of Hispaniola, the heraldic emblem that was included in his shield was venerated. The royal decree was signed by King Ferdinand as administrator of the kingdoms of his daughter Joanna I of Castile. The city was devastated by another earthquake on December 2, 1562. The survivors settled on land belonging to Petronila Jáquez of Minaya, adjacent to the Yaque del Norte, which is the current location of the city's river. The brief French during the Peace of Basel (which yielded the Spanish part of the island to France in 1795) left its mark on Santiago. Santiago was returned to Spain under the Peace of Paris of 1814. During the 19th Century, Santiago began its modern urban planning. European neoclassicism is represented at the Palace Hall, built between 1892 and 1895, by a Belgian architect named Louis Bogaert. The late 1800s saw a peak of architecture in the city. Numerous residences were built in European styles, and make up the central core of Santiago.

Geography

Santiago de los Caballeros is located on a hilly terrain in the middle of the Cibao Valley in the Central Region of the Dominican Republic, one of the most fertile lands found in the island. The Yaque del Norte River passes by Santiago which is in between the Cordillera Central and the Cordillera Septentrional, two of the three major mountain ranges on the island of Hispaniola, forming the Cibao Valley. Santiago features a tropical monsoon climate (Am) under the Köppen climate classification. The average temperature varies little in the city, because the tropical trade winds help mitigate the heat and humidity throughout the year. December and January are the coolest months and July and August are the warmest. Santiago and the rest of the country are in the Caribbean and have a tropical climate, which, when coupled with the city's altitude, 183 meters above sea level, causes cloudy conditions to persist through much of the year. While the entire country is susceptible to Atlantic hurricanes, Santiago and its environs are more sheltered than other parts of the country from their effects because of its location in the Cibao Valley.

Most-observed species

• Hispaniolan Woodpecker

  Melanerpes striatus (P.L.S.Müller, 1776) · Aves
  285
• Eurasian Collared-Dove

  Streptopelia decaocto (Frivaldszky, 1838) · Aves
  278
• Northern Mockingbird

  Mimus polyglottos (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  277
• Palmchat

  Dulus dominicus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  271
• Bananaquit

  Coereba flaveola (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  266
• Antillean Palm-Swift

  Tachornis phoenicobia Gosse, 1847 · Aves
  210
• Gray Kingbird

  Tyrannus dominicensis (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  202
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  197

Most recent

• M 3.7 — 2026-06-03
  1 km E of Arroyo Salado, Dominican Republic
• M 4.2 — 2025-11-16
  6 km ENE of Villa Isabela, Dominican Republic
• M 4.7 — 2025-10-20
  16 km NW of San José de Ocoa, Dominican Republic
• M 3.8 — 2025-08-07
  6 km W of Pedro García, Dominican Republic
• M 4 — 2025-05-28
  1 km N of Palmar Arriba, Dominican Republic
• M 4.3 — 2025-05-09
  21 km NNE of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic