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Calle de las Damas ends at Plaza Espana , an attractive, tiled open space surrounded on all sides by monuments and with terrific views across the river, thus explaining the outdoor cafes that proliferate. An intact section of the old town wall still skirts the eastern plaza, extending to Puerta San Diego , the colonial-era entrance from the port. At the southern end of the plaza, Museo de las Casas Reales (Tues-Sun 9am-6pm; RD$15; tel 809/682-4202), built between 1503 and 1520, was the administrative centre of the West Indies, housing the Royal Court, Treasury and Office of the Governor. Inside, the museum's rather hodgepodge collection includes a few Taino artefacts, Spanish navigational instruments, and an armoury donated by Trujillo with examples of weaponry used here since Columbus. Opposite the Casas Reales is the Alcazar de Colon (daily 9am-5pm; RD$20; tel 809/689-5946), the fortified palace of the Columbus family, built by Diego from 1511 to 1515. This building is the finest local example of the late Gothic style called Isabelline , characterized by plain, linear surfaces adorned only with Islamic portals and delicate vine ornaments. The museum itself holds an array of sixteenth-century ornaments, including religious tapestries, a display case of period silverware and a sixteenth-century harp and clavichord. Bordering the Alcazar to the north is a winding row of colonial storefronts known as Las Atarazanas . Follow it to the end where the Reales Atarazanas, once the colonial port authority, contains the Museo de las Atarazanas , Colon 4 (daily 9am-6pm; RD$15; tel 809/682-5834). Inside you'll find the recovered booty from the wreck of the sixteenth-century Spanish galleon Concepcion , sunk during a hurricane in the Bahia de Samana.
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