Church of Santo Domingo, Cartagena, after its restoration.
The Convento de Santo Domingo is a convent established from the 16th century in the city of Cartagena de Indias, in Colombia. Its canonical name was "Convento de San Daniel". Until 19th century maintained a community of friars of the Dominican Order. The building was then expropriated and handed over to the diocese of Cartagena, serving as a seminary, college and then institute of fine arts. It is one of the most important tourist sites in the city.
In 1531, two years after the first arrival of the Dominican friars to the shores of the so-called "New Kingdom of Granada" and following the method used of evangelization attached to the Conquest, a small group of them accompanied the conqueror Pedro of Heredia in its task of exploration of the region of Calamarí.
In June 1533, the city of Cartagena de Indias was founded, thought from the beginning as a city-port of great relevance for the colonizing task. That is why, three months later, the creation of a diocese was organized in this place, the second of these lands, after Santa Marta. As first bishop, the Dominican Salamancan Fr. Tomás de Toro y Cabero was chosen on April 24, 1534. His government was brief, for he died two years later, after facing serious struggles with the encomenderos, at the head of Pedro de Heredia himself, due to its excesses with the natives.
From the very origin of the city, the friars dedicated themselves to the teaching of Christian doctrine to the natives entrusted, in towns and villages of the region. As the new population prospered, it was thought to create a convent, which would serve as a basis for evangelization tasks, and contribute to intellectual formation and observance. Thus, while the bulls were issued for the second bishop of the diocese, the also Dominican Fr. Jerónimo de Loaisa, the order was sent to organize a regular convent in the city, which began to be built that year, under the invocation of "Saint Joseph", although everyone knew him as "Sant Dominic" because this was the saint founder of the religious order of the Dominicans. Its first prior was Fr. Juan de Ávila.
The first seat of the convent was located in the square "Plaza de la Yerba" (Plaza de los Coches) and it was no more than a temporary shed of straw and mud, which was not very strong. And although there was the essential, community life, the building still lingered on being erected.
After an agitated crosses of letters, reports, petitions and certificates, towards 1549, thanks to the initiative of Fr. José de Robles, the construction of the Convent headquarters was begun. In February 1552 a fire destroyed the city and a better place had to be found for the Dominican convent, on a lot donated by Francisco Lípari. As is usual, the work was totally in charge of the indigenous of the encomiendas, who also had to hand over part of their own property. The contribution of the Spanish encomenderos in a beginning was minimal. For this reason, the initial construction was not a big thing: a rustic house of straw and mud, with a chapel, in which, because of its fragility, "the Blessed Sacrament could not be had, especially because of the danger of fires" according to the documents.
Then came the years of stagnation, where, in spite of the efforts of the friars, the Spaniards of the city were reluctant to collaborate in the construction of the conventual seat. Meanwhile, through its doors entered and left numerous Dominican missions coming from Spain, destined to diverse regions of the New World.
At last, about 1565, the prior Fr. Pedro Mártir Palomino, seeing the house threatening to ruin, entrusted to the friars doctrine, to take advantage of the preaching of Lent "to see if they could make some fruit with their sermons and get some alms to start the sumptuous building of our church and convent."
Convento de Santo Domingo (interior view)
And although there was an effort to build, the funds appeared very slowly, so the construction process took approximately 150 years. Thus, at the time of building, it was necessary to repair what was already built and deteriorating rapidly in the warm atmosphere of Cartagena. The works only began in 1578. Two years later, the new convent only had the bases and religious offices continued to be held in temporary places; Meanwhile, the numerous friars managed to live in only seven table cells. And although in 1596 the King ordered an aid of 5,000 pesos for the convent of Santo Domingo and the one of San Agustín, in 1623 the ceiling of the conventual church barely covered half of enclosure. Finally, in 1630 the temple was finished, but by the end of the 17th century the first convent cloister remained unfinished, and we still find in 1730 references to donations made by the King for the construction and repair of the Convent.
The large investment and long work produced a building not very attractive on the outside, as the chronicler Friar Alonso de Zamora, who described it at the beginning of the 18th century as a convent of "yellow facade; Those grate-like lattice-like windows, that massive church, whose rounded ceilings resemble a gigantic turtle, that crumpled dome, that rough quadrangular bell tower, that unfinished tower whose crumbling ruined walls are covered with vegetables and shelter owls, All that causes a deep sadness," nothing to do with the exterior grandeur of the other great Dominican convent in New Granada, the "convento de Santo Domingo, of Santa Fe de Bogotá. However, the chronicler continues, "all that is changed in admiration when one crosses the threshold and contemplates the grand quadrilateral of the cloisters, ten meters high and proportionally wide, on two floors"; A spacious and airy building, simple, large, eloquent. To say of own and strangers, the convent of Santo Domingo was the most beautiful construction that existed in the city.
Center of evangelization in doctrines
The Convento de Santo Domingo, raised curiously on an old indigenous center, was born and had its being put in place of formation of missionary friars and center of doctrinal diffusion in the bordering regions. For this reason, many of the Dominicans assigned to this convent worked, especially during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries in doctrines of natives, returning periodically to make regular life. It was important the work that during the 16th century, several of them did in defense of the Natives, against the exploitation of which they were object by the encomenderos. By 1763 the Convent was still in charge of the doctrines of San Andrés, Morroa, Piojo, Malambo, Ciénega, Gaira, Sitionuevo y Simaña.
Formation and study place
This place also became center of studies for the friars. It had its own noviciate and it imparted the philosophical-theological formation required by the constitutions of the Order. Its conventual study was erected canonically and was the third in importance, after those of Santa Fe de Bogotá and Tunja. Also, the convent of Santo Domingo, or "San José" of Cartagena, had the right to send annually two outstanding friars to carry out doctoral studies in the University of Santo Tomás of Santa Fe de Bogotá. It even went on to teach theology, of compulsory attendance, to secular priests and clerics of higher orders residing in the city.
Economic center
Stained glass in the convent
Cartagena was a port city and merchant by nature and the Dominican convent could not escape this business atmosphere. For that reason, the community soon acquired many movable and immovable property and became an important lender, thanks to the system of censuses, chaplains and pious works, favoring the call by the historians "economy of salvation".
Collaborator of the court of the Inquisition
It is known that in 1610 the Inquisition was inaugurated in Cartagena de Indias, and although the Dominicans were not in front of the court (except in one opportunity), yes they collaborated, like the other religious communities in the city, in the role of qualifiers, charged with theological study of propositions considered heretical, and to seek the repentance of the accused. On the other hand, in this Cartagenian convent were celebrated at least two auto de fés, in 1648 and 1654.
Cemetery
The Dominican Convent of Cartagena, as was usual in the sacred sites at that time, was a very desirable place for the personalities of the city to bury their dead, acts that became massive in times of epidemics. During excavations carried out for the process of restoration of the Convent, a significant number of tombs of children in courtyards and corridors of the Convent were found, which gives clues for a study on infant mortality during the period.
ARIZA S., Alberto, O.P. Los Dominicos en Colombia. Santafé de Bogotá, Provincia de San Luis Bertrán, 1992. Volume I
DORTA, Enrique Marco. Cartagena de Indias puerto y plaza fuerte. Bogotá, Fondo Cultural Cafetero, 1988
MESANZA, Andrés, O.P. Apuntes y Documentos sobre la orden Dominicana en Colombia (de 1680 a 1930), Caracas, 1936
THERRIEN, Monika. "El Espacio Urbano de Cartagena de Indias en la Colonia". Historia Crítica, No. 2, July–December de 1989.
URUETA, José P.; Gutiérrez de Piñeres, Eduardo. Cartagena y sus cercanías. Guía descriptiva. Cartagena, Tipografía de Vapor Mogollón, 1912.
ZAMORA, Alonso. Historia de la Provincia de San Antonino del Nuevo Reino de Granada. Tomo III.(Original 1701) Bogotá, Instituto Colombiano de Cultura Hispánica. Editorial Kelly, 1980.
Related Research Articles
Cartagena, known since the colonial era as Cartagena de Indias, is a city and one of the major ports on the northern coast of Colombia in the Caribbean Coast Region, bordering the Caribbean sea. Cartagena's past role as a link in the route to the West Indies provides it with important historical value for world exploration and preservation of heritage from the great commercial maritime routes. As a former Spanish colony, it was a key port for the export of Bolivian silver to Spain and for the import of enslaved Africans under the asiento system. It was defensible against pirate attacks in the Caribbean. The city's strategic location between the Magdalena and Sinú Rivers also gave it easy access to the interior of New Granada and made it a main port for trade between Spain and its overseas empire, establishing its importance by the early 1540s.
The Metropolitan and Primate Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and Saint Peter of Bogotá or better known as the Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of Bogotá and Primate of Colombia, officially Sacred Holy Temple Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica and Primate of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and Saint Peter, is a cathedral church of Catholic worship consecrated to the Immaculate Conception and under the patronage of Saint Peter; it is a Neoclassical style building located in the Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá, the country's capital.
The New Kingdom of Granada, or Kingdom of the New Granada, was the name given to a group of 16th-century Spanish colonial provinces in northern South America governed by the president of the Royal Audience of Santafé, an area corresponding mainly to modern-day Colombia. The conquistadors originally organized it as a province with a Royal Audience within the Viceroyalty of Peru despite certain independence from it. The audiencia was established by the crown in 1549. Ultimately the kingdom became the Viceroyalty of New Granada first in 1717 and permanently in 1739. After several attempts to set up independent states in the 1810s, the kingdom and the viceroyalty ceased to exist altogether in 1819 with the establishment of the United Provinces of New Granada.
Santo Domingo Yanhuitlán is a village and municipality in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, located northeast of Oaxaca city. It is part of the Nochixtlán District in the southeast of the Mixteca Region. It is 2,140 meters above sea level. Its name comes from the patron saint of the town and the last part is from Náhuatl meaning “near something new”.
This article is the History of Cartagena, Colombia.
Cartagena Province, also called Gobierno de Cartagena during the Spanish imperial era, was an administrative and territorial division of New Granada in the Viceroyalty of Peru. It was originally organized on February 16, 1533 as a captaincy general from the central portion of the Province of Tierra Firme. In 1717, King Philip V of Spain issued a royal decree creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, by which the province was added to the latter.
The Cathedral of Cartagena de Indias in Colombia, officially the Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, is located in the historic centre of Cartagena. It is the episcopal see of the Archbishop of Cartagena de Indias, one of the oldest episcopal sees in the Americas. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
A Spanish Colombian is a Colombian of full Spanish descent. Since many of Colombians are of full or partial Spanish descent and their culture is influenced by Spain as well as the Colombian government using White Colombian instead of Spanish Colombian, the term is rarely used.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Bogotá, Colombia.
The defunct Convento de Santo Tomás was a set of buildings belonging to the Dominicans, under the patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas, in Madrid.
The Iglesia de Santo Domingo de Guzmán it is a Roman Catholic church located in the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna.
Diego de Torre(s) y Moyachoque was cacique of Turmequé, in the New Kingdom of Granada. He served as chief from 1571 to his death. De Torres y Moyachoque was a mestizo, the child of a Spanish conquistador and a Muisca noble. He is known for his defense of the local Muisca and resistance against the Spanish encomenderos, particularly his half-brother Pedro de Torres. De Torres y Moyachoque is also known as the first cartographer of the lands surrounding the capital of the New Kingdom of Granada, Santa Fe de Bogotá.
Juan de(l) Junco was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca people. Del Junco started his career as a conquistador in the 1526 expedition led by Sebastian Cabot exploring the Río de la Plata in present-day Argentina. In 1535, he arrived in Santa Marta on the Colombian Caribbean coast from where the expedition in search of El Dorado set off in April1536.
Gonzalo García Zorro was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca people. García Zorro was encomendero (mayor) of Santa Fe de Bogotá for seven terms, and received the encomiendas of Fusagasugá and Fosca.
Antonio de Lebrija was born in 1507, in Alcántara, Extremadura, Spain; and died in 1540, in Brozas, also in Extremadura. He was a Spanish conquistador who participated in the Spanish conquest of the Muisca and the Chimila peoples. He was the treasurer of the conquest expedition which left Santa Marta in April 1536 following the high quality salt trail, the Camino de la Sal, along the Suárez River up the slopes of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes towards the Muisca Confederation.
The convent, cloister and chapel of Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria de la Popa are located at the top of Mount la Popa, in Cartagena de Indias, in Colombia. It is also called Convento de Santa Cruz de la Popa.
The Basilica and Maximus Convent of Nuestra Señora del Rosario, popularly known as the Convent of Santo Domingo, is a Catholic religious complex located in the city of Lima, Peru.
The Convent of St. Francis is a Franciscan convent located in the city centre of Pontevedra (Spain), overlooking the Plaza de la Herrería. The Gothic church of San Francis is attached to the convent on the southeast side.
The Santa Clara Museum occupies the space of the church of the old Royal Convent of Santa Clara, completed in 1647. It is located in the Historic Center of Bogotá (Colombia), on Carrera 8 No. 8-91. It has an extensive collection of paintings and sculptures from the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. The building is considered one of the most representative samples of the architecture and Baroque decoration of the 17th and 18th centuries in Bogotá. This museum is an entity of the Ministry of Culture.
The Dominican priory of La Guardia de Jaén, known from its dedication as the Convent of Santa María Magdalena de la Cruz, was founded for a community of friars of the Dominican Order in the town of La Guardia de Jaén in the province of Jaén in Andalusia, Spain. Construction at the current location began around 1539. The priory was shut down and confiscated during the Trienio Liberal (1820–1823), and the buildings are now mostly ruined. The church however remains in use as the present Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción. At first Gothic in style, its layout initially followed a design by Domingo de Tolosa. It was later extensively revised by Andrés de Vandelvira, who imprinted his personal Renaissance stamp on the church and the cloister loggia.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
