The area's home to the remnants of Fort San Felipe, which was built in the 16th century to protect Puerto Plata's shipping port from pirates, as well as the Puerto Plata Lighthouse, constructed in ...

By 1520, Puerto Plata was broke. For the nearly 200 years that followed, smugglers and pirates used the port as a safe haven. In 1863, fire and civil war ravaged much of what was left of the city.