Azua de Compostela

**Azua',** officially **Azua de Compostela,**  is a city in the Dominican Republic. It is the capital of Azua Province. As of the 2012 Census, the city's population was 128,274.

## Azua de Compostela

### Region

Valdesia
Azua Province

## About

This city, located on the right bank of the Vía River in the Dominican Republic, on the road to Saint-Jean and that of Neiba to Santo Domingo, nearly two leagues from the shore of the bay of Ocoa, replaced the ancient city of Compostela founded in **1504** by Diego Columbus, and which was overthrown by the earthquake of October 18, 1751. This terrible event having brought the sea into the city, it was abandoned, and then the current city was founded to 10 km to the interior. On **September 6, 1883**, a hurricane did a great deal of damage. Before the expulsion of the French from the eastern part, there were 300 houses; but they were burned by order of Dessalines on his return from the Santo-Domingo siege.  *Azua*  is the Indian name that the territory of this municipality bore, the former capital of the district of the same name under the Haitian domination, in the former department of the Sud-Est, Haiti|South-East, and currently the capital of the province of Azua. They made very fine sugar and in large quantities in the early days of colonization; we can still see the remains of a sugar mill near the Ocoa River, and the aqueduct where the water moved the mill. Even today, small establishments produce very fine raw sugar, and the syrup is used to make a tafia for the very famous rum. Oranges and all other productions of the vegetable kingdom are of the best quality.

## History

Fernand Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico, was clerk of the municipality of the ancient city of Compostela, before having followed Diego Velasquez to Cuba.

• Toussaint-Louverture, in taking possession of the eastern part, in **1804**, left Saint-Jean and arrived in Azua on **January 12th**. He found the city in perfect tranquility: he continued his march with prodigious rapidity, traveling up to 25 leagues a day. In **1805**, the Emperor Dessalines seized it. In **December 1821**, the Haitian flag was displayed with transports of joy to Azua, like the example of Santo-Domingo, for the meeting of the eastern part to the Republic of Haiti. General Bergerac Trichet was immediately sent to Azua by President Boyer to thwart the plans of the French who were trying to seize this part. Colonel Frémont succeeded him in this command. In **1822**, Adjutant General Voltaire commanded it.

• In **1830**, when Spain sent to demand the surrender of the eastern part to the Republic of Haiti, President Boyer sent a regiment to Azua to oppose an invasion of the Spaniards.

• The port of Azua was opened to foreign trade in **1822**; but the law of the **25th** of **1826** closed it on the following **July 1st**. From then on, the territory of this administration returned to that of Santo Domingo. At this moment, foreigners frequented it very much. The law of **October 18, 1822** brought this commune to the 5th class for commerce and to the 6th for the arts and meters. That of **April 19, 1825** carried it to the 5th class, and later still, it was definitively placed in the 6th class.

• In **1844**, President Charles Herard, in his campaign against the eastern part, stopped at Azua, waiting for means of attack to continue his march. While he was in this city, the people pronounced his decay in Port-au-Prince, and had General Guerrier named president of Haiti on **May 3rd**. General Thomas Hector offered to Hérard to force the entrance of the capital and to keep it in power; but the ex-president submitted to the wishes of the people and asked to retire abroad. He turned back and stopped on the **Drouillard** habitaiton where he embarked for Jamaica where he died.

• Soulouque, president, entered Azua on **April 6, 1849** and stopped there, complaining about the intricacies of the French in favor of the Dominicans. On **April 5, 1849**, Geffrard was shot in the leg in front of Azua. The Azua garrison consisted of the Ligero and Regulares battalions, and Chavalos. Many caravans of junkies from Azua often came to buy in Port-au-Prince, despite the difficulties and the length of the road.

## Geography

### Azua Plain

The Azua Plain produces cattle, reputedly the best donkeys, mahogany, fustic, gaiac and construction woods, like all the centers of the Dominican Republic.

The Azua Plain includes the space between the Neybe River and Anse de la Caldera. It communicates to the N by a gorge with the savannas of Farfan and Saint-Jean. She has 1,500 kil. Surface squares. The territory is of amazing fertility, in spite of the drought that usually reigns there. It produces beautiful raw sugar and raises a lot of cattle there: mahogany wood cuts are very common, as everywhere in the Republic dom. In the Azu plain flow the Jura, 18 km long, and the Tabara with the Viajata and the Sajanoa, 37 km long. The first spell of Cerro Viejo and the second of Loma Viajama; both are thrown into Ocoa Bay. Azua Azua Forms today a rich province of the Dominican repiblic. The municipalities that depend on it are Azua, capital, San Juan de la Maguana, Cercado, Matas de Farfan, San Jose de Ocoa and Banica. Healthful climate.

1890: 36000

Azua Mountain and Laho are near San Juan de la Maguana. Mount Cibao projects its branches there. The rivers which water this province are the Guarico, the panduf and the Cuevas, who throw themselves in the Puerto-Medio; the Navero and the Caño de Juan, which flow into the Yabano. The Yaque del sur waters the eastern part of this province. It has rich valley, frequent mineral sources, and inexhaustible mines of rock salt. Also present are diamond, opal, talc, asbestos, sulfur, jasper, porphyry, marble, emerald, ruby, albatross, alabaster, plaster, and petroleum.

### Resources

There are sulphurous thermal waters in the Viajama mountains, which appeared after the earthquake of 1751, and gold mines in the municipality. The sulphurous springs of Azua are located 35 km from the city, in a mountainous counterpart. One of them is so abundant that it is estimated at 500 cubic feet per hour; it is slightly warm. The taste and smell prove the presence of sulfur. Another source, less abundant, a few steps from the first, provides a tart water, free of sulfur and pleasant to taste. At 50 meters from it there is another source. There are many others in the commune. The mining of the gold mine has been abandoned for a long time. There is also a source of oil in Higuerito, near Azua; it is with this oil, burnt in a soup plate, that the chemistry teacher of the high school of Port-au-Prince prepared the carbon in **1843**. At 9 km from Azua one finds, in a very accessible place, a great mass of oil. A few years ago they had dug several wells; this work was abandoned following the death of the concessionaire. The oil is heavy and has a good light intensity; it is free of naphtha, which is probably due to the eliminative qualities of limestone and gravel on the soil surface.

### Flora and Fauna

Mahogany wood, oak roble, walnut, ironwood, immortal, sabine, balsam, marbled wood, mapou, cotton.

Ramier, spatula, flamads, royal peacock, parrot, partridge, turtledove, quail, duck, goose, heron, onocrotale, diving, frigate, lapwing, kingfisher, pheasant, guinea fowl.

Horses, oxen, donkeys, cabrits, pigs.

Castile Bees: wax, honey. A decree of the domineering national congress of 1881 grants to the municpalites of the province of Azua the rights of animals to leave for Haiti, half for public education, and the other half for the erection of the churches of the said localities.