Santiago de los Caballeros, or Santiago for short, is a Dominican city and the head municipality of the Santiago, in the north central region of the country. By its population and economic activity, it is the second-most important city in the country, after Santo Domingo.

History
Christopher Columbus built a small fort in the summer of 1495, on the northern side of the Yaque del Norte river in a place named "La Emboscada". This is several kilometres to the west of the present city. Columbus named the fort after Santiago Apóstol, in English "Saint James"

In 1504, Nicolás de Ovando, governor of the Hispaniola, moved the town to Jacagua  which is now the municipal district of San Francisco de Jacagua. This place was near the mountains and away from the river Yaque del Norte.

An earthquake destroyed the city of Santiago on 2 December 1562. The next year, 1563, the city was rebuilt again on the north side of the river Yaque del Norte but this time more to the east, where it is now. This new town was called Santiago de los Caballeros, in English, "Saint James of the Knights" or, better, "Knights of Saint James".

Population
The city had, in , a total population of 591,985: 288,746 men and 303,239 women. The urban population was  of the total population.

The people from this city are called (demonym) in different ways; santiaguero for males and santiaguera for females. Sometimes santiagués is used for both sexes. Santiaguense (for both sexes) is used to differentiate them from people of other cities with the same name in Spain,  Cuba, Chile, and Argentina).

Geography 
The municipality of Santiago de los Caballeros has a total area of . It has five municipal districts (a municipal district is a subdivision of a municipality). These are Pedro García, Baitoa, La Canela, San Francisco de Jacagua and Hato del Valle.

Santiago de los Caballeros is at  to the northwest of Santo Domingo and at an altitude of  above sea level.

The municipality has the municipalities of Tamboril and Licey al Medio to the east, the La Vega province to the southeast, the municipality of Jánico to the south, the municipality of San José de las Matas to the southwest, the Valverde province to the west, the municipalities of Bisonó and Villa González to the northwest and the province of Puerto Plata to the north.

Mountains
The Cordillera Septentrional ("Northern mountain range") runs along the northern half of the municipality. The city of Santiago de los Caballeros is on the southern side of those mountains, and even some parts of the city are on the mountains.

There are several small hills in the city; the highest is the Cerro del Castillo ("Castle Hill") in the eastern part of the city; on this hill there is a monument: the "Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración" ( "Monument to the Restoration War Heroes"), commonly named only as the "Monumento".

Rivers
The river Yaque del Norte, the longest of the Dominican Republic, flows along the old southern side of the city. Now, the city is on both sides of the river but most people still lives on the northern (right) side of it. Other rivers are Nibaje and Gurabito but they are very small and tributaries of the Yaque del Norte.

Climate
The city of Santiago de los Caballeros is located in the northeastern part of the Yaque del Norte Valley, a very dry and hot region. And so, the climate of the city is a dry tropical climate, hot most of the year (Köppen-Geiger classification: Aw). The northern part of the municipality, and part of the city, is on the Cordillera Central mountain range and the climate is cooler and it rains more than in the city itself.

The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is . The month with the most precipitation on average is May with  of rainfall, followed by November with .

The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is February with an average of  and the second is January with .

Santiago de los Caballeros is in a hot region; the average temperature for the year is . The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

Administrative division
The municipality of Santiago de los Caballeros has five municipal districts:

Economy
Even if farming is still a very important economic activity around the city, Santiago is now a modern city with many industries and companies of different kinds.

Education
Santiago is home of two universities: Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM) and Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago (UTESA). Other universities present in Santiago are: Universidad Organización & Método (O&M), Universidad Abierta para Adultos (UAPA), Universidad Nacional Evangélica and one regional campus of the state university Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD).

Twin cities
The twin cities of Santiago are:

 La Habana (Cuba)
 Santiago de Compostela (Spain)
 San Juan (Puerto Rico)
 Mayagüez, PR (United States)

Gallery

References

Settlements in the Dominican Republic
1495 establishments