The 500 Year Old Cathedral in Hinche, Haiti
The Cathedral still stands after 5 Centuries
This is one of the oldest catholic churches in Haiti and the oldest cathedral on the island of Hispaniola. It is located in Hinche, Haiti
It is a tourist attraction as it is over 500 years old. The saint in front of the catholic church in Hinche is Immaculee Conception. in Hinche they call the saint, Manman Marie.
This cathedral in Hinche was built in 1503 by order of Frey Nicolás de Ovando (1460 – 1511). He was a Spanish soldier from a noble family and a Knight of the Order of Alcántara, a military order of Spain, and became Governor of Hispaniola from 1502 until 1509.
Built by a brutal Spanish administration
He was sent by the Spanish crown to investigate the administration of Francisco de Bobadilla and re-establish order. His administration subdued rebellious Spaniards and completed the brutal genocide of the native Taíno population of Hispaniola.
When Ovando arrived in Hispaniola in 1502, he found the once-peaceful natives in revolt. Ovando and his subordinates ruthlessly suppressed this rebellion through a series of bloody campaigns, including the Jaragua Massacre and Higüey Massacre.
Ovando’s administration in Hispaniola became notorious for its cruelty toward the native Taíno. Estimates of the Taino population at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards in 1492 vary, with Anderson Córdova giving a maximum of 500,000 people inhabiting the island. By the 1507 census, according to Bartolomé de las Casas, battlefield slaughter, enslavement, and disease had reduced the native population to 60,000 people, and the decline continued. In 1501, Ovando ordered the first importation of Spanish-speaking black slaves into the Americas, thus the beginning of African slave commerce on the island.
After the conquests made by his lieutenants including Juan Ponce de León and Juan de Esquivel, Ovando founded several cities on Hispaniola. He also developed the mining industry, introduced the cultivation of sugar cane with plants imported from the Canary Islands, and commissioned expeditions of discovery and conquest throughout the Caribbean. Ovando allowed Spanish settlers to use the natives in
The Spanish were responsible for the Extinction of the Native Taino Indians
forced labor, a system known as encomienda, to provide food for the colonists and for ships returning to Spain. Hundreds of thousands of Taíno died while forced to extract gold from the nearby mines.
Pursuant to a deathbed promise he made to his wife Queen Isabella I, King Ferdinand II of Aragon recalled Ovando to Spain in 1509 to answer for his treatment of the native people. Diego Columbus, the brother of Christopher Columbus, was appointed his successor as governor, but the Spanish Crown permitted Ovando to retain possession of the property he brought back from the Americas.
