The royal family will walk the corridors of the Alcazar once again after more than 400 years. Visitors will find individual actors in full costume playing the roles of First Viceroy of the Americas, Don Diego Colon, his wife Maria de Toledo, their seven children and members of the court on weekdays and on Saturday nights. This is a new must-see experience for Santo Domingo.
Maria de Toledo, niece of the King of Spain, had married Christopher Columbus’s son Diego, following the discovery of the new lands. She would travel to Santo Domingo to live in the palace that would be built for the royal family. Construction would begin in 1510, and the family would move in by 1512 and live there until 1577. During this time, as the center of the Spanish court in the Americas, the palace would host the legendary Spanish explorers Hernan Cortes, Francisco Pizarro and Ponce de Leon.
The Alcazar, already a museum of the period, now relives those days.
The costumes are creations by leading Dominican designers Leonel Lirio (known for creating the attire of Miss Dominican Republic in the Miss Universe pageant), Hipolito Pena, Robert Flores, Giannina Azar, Magaly Tiburcio, Jorge Diep, Luis Rivas, Berkola, Carla Carbonell, Luis Dominguez and Carlos de Moya.