San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic

San Cristóbal is a Dominican city and the head municipality of the San Cristóbal province.

The city is only  from the national capital and, because of that, it is a city where many people live but work at Santo Domingo.

History
Since colonial times, there were many farms in the region; the main crop was sugarcane. There were several sugar factories with slaves.

But the town was founded during the first years of the 18th century by a Catholic priest: Juan de Jesús Fabian Ayala y García.

In 1822, the town was made a municipality by the Haitian government. In 1844, after the Dominican independence from Haiti, the city was made a municipality of the old Santo Domingo province.

The first Dominican constitution was written in San Cristóbal in 1844.

In 1932, San Cristóbal was made the head municipality of the new Trujillo Province; it had the name of Trujillo after the dictator Rafael Trujillo who was born in San Cristóbal. After Trujillo's death, the province was given the name of the main city: San Cristóbal.

Population
The municipality had, in , a total population of 216,875: 106,855 men and 110,020 women. The urban population was  of the total population.

Geography
San Cristóbal is in a small valley; the valley has small hills around it except along the Nigua river. Nigua is the most important river of the region; another river is Yubazo or Blanco, a tributary of Nigua.

San Cristóbal has a total area of  (without including its municipal district), about  of the total area of the province of San Cristóbal. The city is an elevation of  above sea level, and at  to the west of Santo Domingo. It has only one municipal district (subdivisions of a municipality): Hato Damas.

The municipality of San Cristóbal has the municipality of Villa Altagracia to the north, the Santo Domingo province and the municipality of Bajos de Haina to the east, the municipality of San Gregorio de Nigua and the Caribbean Sea to the south and the municipality of Yaguate to the west.

Climate
San Cristóbal has a tropical monsoonal climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: Am) with a dry season and a heavy monsoon the rest of year; there is not a cold season.

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 June 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 .

San Cristóbal 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 .

Administrative division
The municipality of San Cristóbal has 1 municipal district:

+ Municipal districts of San Cristóbal Code  Municipal district  Population(2010) 210102  Hato Damas  15,894

References

Category:Settlements in the Dominican Republic
Category:18th-century establishments in the Spanish Empire