Alcazar of Columbus

The Alcázar de Colón or Viceregal Palace of Don Diego Colón is a palace from the early 16th century, located in the Plaza de España in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). This construction was built on a plot of land near the cliffs that look towards the Ozama River; granted to Diego Colón, first-born son of the discoverer of America, Christopher Columbus, by King Ferdinand the Catholic, to build a home for himself and his descendants on the island of Hispaniola, where he arrived in 1509 as governor and where the Alcázar de Colón Museum currently operates.

It is the only known residence of a member of the Columbus family, apart from the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, which is still in Genoa. Juana, Isabel, Luis and Cristóbal Colón de Toledo, children of Don Diego Colón and his wife Doña María Álvarez de Toledo, were born in the palace. Diego Colón died in Spain in 1526 but María Álvarez de Toledo, his widow, remained there until her death in 1549. Three generations of the Colón de Toledo family lived there, possibly until 1577.

The ownership of the palace was the subject of dispute for nearly two centuries from that year onwards. Possibly in 1586 the English pirate Francis Drake, during his invasion of Hispaniola, destroyed or took valuable objects from the former home of Diego Columbus.