La Vega
Dominican Republic · Americas
關於La Vega
La Vega, officially Concepción de la Vega (Real), is the third most populous city and a municipality of the Dominican Republic. It is the provincial capital of the homonymous province. The city is known as the Carnival epicenter of the Dominican Republic for its tradition and culture, its large agricultural production methods throughout its province.
Concepción de la Vega (Real) was the first settlement in its province, having been founded in 1495 by Batholomew Columbus at the foot of a fortress built by his brother, Christopher Columbus in 1494, which was intended to guard the route to the interior gold deposits of the Cibao Valley. This Spanish settlement gradually grew around the fort. The name of the city honors and refers to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which in Spanish is commonly shortened to "Concepción"; and "la Vega" refers to the "plain" in which it is sited. Either the city itself or the antecedent fortress was founded on 8 December, this being the date of the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception. After 1508, when gold was found in quantity there, Concepción became the first gold boomtown in the island. It already had a cathedral...
Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.