Their homes, built after the colonial period, are characterized by a style open to nature and the sea.
By José Arias
El Inmobiliario
The Santa Bárbara neighborhood is located in the northwest-northeast corner of the walled city. Its proximity to the port of Santo Domingo and its strategic position as a key transit point for entering the eastern part of Santo Domingo fueled its significant economic, social, and cultural growth during the colonial era.
By then, it was equivalent to a large operations center intended for the maintenance of ships that transported their goods and slaves from Europe, to unload them in the area of Las Atarazanas, the customs and warehouses of the government of Hispaniola.
The prominent architect and urban planner, Omar Rancier, dean of the School of Architecture and Urbanism at the Pedro Henríquez Ureña University (UNPHU), states that the Santa Barbara neighborhood, one of the oldest in Santo Domingo, contains a series of residences and buildings in the republican style built during its modern period, at the beginning of the last century.
He states that the republican concept is characterized by being open to nature, to the sea, and that its wall faces the port of Santo Domingo.
He states that Santa Barbara is considered the first marginal neighborhood in American cities in the European style during the colonial period.
Limestone was extracted from its lands for the construction of the works of the Colonial City such as the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, the Casa del Tostado (Family Museum) and others of great architectural and cultural importance.
The architect and university professor points out that the emergence of a bourgeoisie in Santa Barbara at the beginning of the 19th and 20th centuries generated a transformation in the morphology of its residences and buildings.
“The construction of neoclassical-style apartments and residences began, made of concrete with molds copied from classical iconography, that is, balustrades, columns and capitals.”.
He believes that these buildings represent a great potential for the relaunch of Santa Bárbara by recovering the houses for heritage and tourism validation purposes, as happens in similar historic centers such as Old San Juan in Puerto Rico and Old Havana in Cuba.
He values the rescue, renovation and beautification of the Santa Bárbara Military Church, which represents a plus for the development of residents and visitors to that community.
The murals
In the 1980s, artist and left-wing activist Silvano Lora created the Marginal Biennial, a counterpart to the Biennial of Visual Arts organized by the Dominican State. He invited artists not belonging to the official circuit and art galleries to reflect in their works the state of abandonment of their buildings and the poor quality of life of the inhabitants at that time.
The artists participated en masse with paintings, sculptures, performances, and murals painted on canvas. These can currently be found on the main streets of the area: Gabino Puello, Colón, General Cabral, Vicente Celestino Duarte, and Las Atarazanas Street.
Article originally published in the 6th edition of El Inmobiliario print.
