Santo Domingo Temple

It is the oldest and reverenced temple of the city. It Its interior has the “Holy Christ of Expiration” a beautiful sculpture made of wood, which according to one legend, was carved by an angel at the beginning of XVII Century. Together with the Cloister next to it, formed the Preachers Friars’ Covent, also known as the Black Friars or Dominican monks, which mission was the protection of aborigines against conquerors’ abuses.

The temple and its cloister, began to be built by the middle of XVI Century, close to the Caribbean Sea, in a beach that in that moment was far from the city’s life. The temple has suffered several knocked downs and reconstructions. To prevent it from future collapses, reinforcements were added both to the interior and the exterior parts, so noticeable that changed the name of its neighbor alley (De los Estribos or Buttress). It is a temple full of legends as the one that says that the arch of the choir area will fall a Good Friday over the impious parishioners; and other that says that the Devil, under the form of an eminent engineer, tried to convince brother Francis to build a more impressive bell tower for the temple. Once the Brother discovered the trick, made the devil disappear by saying “Vade Retro!”, and as a revenge, it intended to knock down the tower, only achieving to twist it a little before disappearing. (In fact the tower looks slightly twisted). It is also said that the demon fell down to a well located in the square in front of the church and stays there as a prisoner.