Cotuí

Cotuí is a Dominican city and the head municipality of the Sánchez Ramírez province, in the centre of the country.

Name
Cotuí comes from the word Cotoi, the Taíno name of the region where the old city was founded.

History
The town was founded in 1505 by Rodrigo Mejía de Trujillo, a Spanish conquistador; the Spanish governor of the Hispaniola island at that time was Nicolás de Ovando. It was built near a gold mine in a region called Cotoi (also written Cotoy) by the Taíno people.

The old town was near the present town of Maimón and there were important improvements in the town during those first years and its named was changed to La Mejorada Villa de Cotuí ("The Improved City of Cotu") but most people called it Los Mineros ("The Miners").

In 1562 there was a strong earthquake that destroyed the town and other cities in the island. Cotuí was moved to its present place in 1569, close to the river Yuna.

It was made a municipality in 1822 by the Haitian government and it was one of the first municipalities of the country after the Dominican Independence in 1844. In 1952, Cotuí was made the head municipality of the new province of Sánchez Ramírez.

Population
The municipality had, in , a total population of 64,133: 32,675 men and 31,458 women. The urban population was  of the total population.

Geography
Cotuí has a total area of , about  of the total area of the province of Sánchez Ramírez. The city is an elevation of , and at  to the north of Santo Domingo.

Cotuí is to the north of the Sierra de Yamasá mountain range, in the Cibao Valley. The city is near the Yuna river, one of the most important river of the Hispaniola island.

The municipality of Cotuí has the Monseñor Nouel province to the west, the Monte Plata province to the south, the municipality of Fantino to the northwest, the municipality of La Mata to the north and the municipality of Cevicos to the west.

Climate
Cotuí 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 May with  of rainfall, followed by August with .

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

Cotuí is in a hot region; the average temperature for the year is . The warmest month, on average, is June with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

Administrative division
The municipality of Cotuí has four municipal districts:
+ Municipal districts of Cotuí Code  Municipal district  Population(2010) 240102  Quita Sueño  3,531 240103  Caballero  2,521 240104  Comedero Arriba  2,699 240105  Platanal  3,670
References

Category:Settlements in the Dominican Republic
Category:1500s establishments in the Spanish Empire