A short history of Puerto Plata

Columbus sailed past this bay in 1493 and named it Puerto Plata, the silver port, for the way the light hit the water. The first settlement followed at La Isabela, just west of today's Luperón. For two centuries the town lived off contraband. Spanish authorities tried to shut down illegal trade with Dutch and English ships by forcing residents inland, and the coast emptied. Fort San Felipe, finished in 1577, was built to keep pirates out of the harbour. The nineteenth century changed everything. Tobacco from the Cibao valley left through Puerto Plata, and German merchants built the Victorian gingerbread houses you still see around Independence Park. The city became the wealthiest and most cosmopolitan on the island. Tourism arrived in the 1970s with Playa Dorada, the country's first planned resort complex. Today the port receives cruise ships at Amber Cove while the old town keeps its wooden balconies, its fortress and its amber museum.