When you’re standing in front of the coffin in Santo Domingo where Columbus is buried, protected on all four sides by stoic guards in full military regalia, you stop and pay attention.

You stop because you realize the remains of the first European to ever step foot west of Portugal lies only ten feet from where you’re standing. More than 500 years of history began with his cursory gaze towards the horizon.

The legendary sailor from Genoa named the island La Isla Española (The Spanish Island), which later became “Hispaniola”—the present name of the landmass home to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Columbus also called the island “the most beautiful land that eyes have ever seen.” Today, more than eight million residents and almost three million visitors a year would heartily agree.

Columbus, however, was not one to put down roots. After trading clothing for gold nuggets with the friendly Taino Indians, he made his triumphal return to Spain. Warranting a king’s welcome and enjoying a privileged life, Columbus was still never able to overcome the lure of the tropics. The bewitching beauty of Hispaniola is said to have haunted his dreams, and he again returned to the island in November of 1494. This time he established the settlement of Isabela on the northwestern coast. He left his brother Bartolome to rule, but again he set off in search of the riches of Antilia—remnants of the mythical lost city of Atlantis.

It was Bartolome Columbus who moved the capital south to the more fertile land and protected harbor of Santo Domingo. For more than 50 years, the burgeoning city would become the administrative capital of the Spanish Empire in the New World. And for 200 years after that, it was ground zero for Spanish exploration and settlement into Central and South America. Conquistadors and cavaliers, pirates, princes and the Spanish Navy used Santo Domingo as a primary port of call in the shipping lanes linking Europe and the Americas. At the time, it was simply one of the most exotic cities in the world, discussed around the globe everywhere from lowly port taverns to the highest houses of parliament.

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