The first hospital of the New World
Founded around 1503 on the orders of Governor Nicolás de Ovando and named for Saint Nicholas of Bari, this was the first hospital built anywhere in the Americas. It was laid out on a Latin-cross plan in coral stone and brick, and cared for the sick of the young colonial city for centuries.
Its design became a model copied by hospitals across Spanish America.
A ruin preserved
Battered by hurricanes over the centuries and left roofless, the structure was partly taken down in the early 1900s for safety. What remains — soaring arches and bare stone walls open to the sky — has been stabilised and preserved rather than rebuilt.
Walking beneath its arches on Calle Hostos is one of the quieter, more haunting moments of a tour through the Zone.
What you'll see
- ✦The surviving stone arches open to the sky
- ✦The original Latin-cross floor plan
- ✦The site of the first hospital in the Americas
- ✦Its quiet setting on Calle Hostos
