Monte Plata

**Monte Plata** is a Dominican city and head municipality of the Monte Plata province.

The town was founded with people from Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata; they took the words "Monte" from the first town and "Plata" from the second town to form the name of the new town: "Monte Plata".

## History

The city was founded in 1606 when the Spanish Governor Antonio Osorio destroyed, by orders of King Phillip III of Spain, the towns of Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata. The people and the cattle were moved to a new town that was given the name of Monte Plata to remember those two towns that were destroyed.

When the province of Monte Plata was created in 1982, the city was made the head municipality of this province.

## Population

The municipality had, in , a total population of 26,192: 13,288 men and 12,904 women. The urban population was  of the total population.

## Geography

Monte Plata is in the northwestern part of the _Llano Costero del Caribe_ (in English, "Caribbean Coastal Plain"), a large prairie with many important savannas.

The _Sierra de Yamasá_ is found to the northeast of the municipality. _Los Haitises_ is a karst region with many small hills; it is to the northwest of Monte Plata.

It has a total area of  and has three municipal districts (a municipal district is a subdivision of a municipality); these are Boyá, Chirino and Don Juan.

The altitude of the city of Monte Plata is  above sea level.

The municipality of Monte Plata has the municipality of Sabana Grande de Boyá to the north, the municipality of Bayaguana to the east, the Santo Domingo province to the south and the municipality of Yamasá to the west.

### Climate

Monte Plata has a tropical wet climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: **Af**) with no dry or cold season as it is constantly moist (rainfalls during the whole year).

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

The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is January with an average of  followed by December with an average of .

Monte Plata is in a warm region; the average temperature for the year is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

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## Administrative division

The municipality of Monte Plata has three municipal districts:

|Code|Municipal district|Population <small>(2010)</small>|
| --- | --- | --- |
|290102|Don Juan|7,313|
|290103|Chirino|7,951|
|290104|Boyá|5,267|

## Economy

Because there are many savannas, and by its history, the most important economic activity in the municipality is cattle raising is also important, mainly for milk.

Farming is also an important activity. Some crops are sugar cane and fruits like orange.

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Monte Plata
- **settlement type**: Municipality
- **pushpin map**: Dominican Republic
- **pushpin relief**: 1
- **subdivision type**: Country
- **subdivision name**: Dominican Republic
- **subdivision type1**: Provinces of the Dominican Republic, Province
- **subdivision name1**: Monte Plata Province, Monte Plata
- **parts type**: Provinces of the Dominican Republic, Municipal Districts
- **parts style**: para
- **p1**: Boyá
- **p2**: Chirino
- **p3**: Don Juan
- **established title**: Founded
- **established date**: 1606
- **established title2**: Municipality since
- **established date2**:
1844
- **area total km2**: 264.4
- **area urban km2**: 3.34
- **elevation m**: 56
- **population total**: 24192
- **total type**: Total
- **population urban**: 16115
- **population density km2**: auto
- **population demonym**: Monteplateño
(female, monteplateña)
- **timezone**: Atlantic Standard Time Zone, AST
- **utc offset**: -4
- **timezone dst**: Atlantic Standard Time Zone, AST
- **utc offset dst**: -4
- **blank name sec1**: Distance
- **blank info sec1**: to Santo Domingo