Santa Bárbara de Samaná

The Dominican city of **Santa Bárbara de Samaná**, or simply **Samaná**, is the head municipality of the Samaná province, on the south coast of the peninsula of Samaná. The people from this city, and of the province, are called _samanés_ or _samanense_, in Spanish.

## Name

Santa Bárbara de Samaná is named _Santa Bárbara_ after the Queen Bárbara de Braganza, wife of King Ferdinand VI of Spain. Samaná was the Taíno name of the region.

## History

The city was founded in 1756 as Santa Bárbara de Samaná, by the Spanish governor Francisco Rubio y Peñaranda. This was during the period when the area of Santo Domingo was a Spanish colony. Its first European inhabitants were families from the Canary Islands.

When the Maritime District (an old division similar to a province) of Samaná was created in 1865, the city was elevated to the category of municipality.

## Population

The municipality had, in , a total population of 33,196: 17,034 men and 16,162 women. The urban population was  of the total population.

## Geography

Santa Bárbara de Samaná has a total area of  (without including its municipal districts), about  of the total area of the province of Samaná. The city is an elevation of  above sea level, and at  to the northeast of Santo Domingo.

The city is surrounded by mountains of the _Sierra de Samaná_, a small mountain range that covers most of the Samaná peninsula.

The municipality of Santa Bárbara de Samaná has the Atlantic Ocean to the north and the east, the Samaná Bay to the south, the municipality of Las Terrenas to the northwest and the municipality of Sánchez to the southwest.

### Climate

Samaná 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 November with  of rainfall, followed by October with .

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

Samaná 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 Santa Bárbara de Samaná has 3 municipal districts:

|Code|Municipal district|Population <small>(2010)</small>|
| --- | --- | --- |
|200102|El Limón|7,024|
|200103|Arroyo Barril|11,007|
|200104|Las Galeras|6,929|

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Samaná
- **official name**: Santa Bárbara de Samaná
- **settlement type**: Municipality
- **image skyline**: DO-samana-uferpromenade.jpg
- **image caption**: Samaná esplanade
- **pushpin map**: Dominican Republic
- **subdivision type**: Country
- **subdivision type1**: Provinces of the Dominican Republic, Province
- **subdivision name1**: Samaná Province, Samaná
- **established title**: Founded
- **established date**: 1756
- **established title2**: Municipality since
- **established date2**:
1865
- **parts type**: Provinces of the Dominican Republic, Municipal Districts
- **parts style**: para
- **p1**: El Limón, Samaná, El Limón
- **p2**: Arroyo Barril, Samaná, Arroyo Barril
- **p3**: Las Galeras, Samaná, Las Galeras
- **area total km2**: 212.6
- **elevation m**: 5
- **population total**: 33196
- **total type**: Total
- **population urban**: 13857
- **population density km2**: auto
- **population demonym**: Samanés, samanense
- **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 San Francisco de Macorís
 to Santo Domingo