After Christo­pher Columbus‘s arrival on the island in 1492, San­to Domin­go became the site of the first cathe­dral, hos­pi­tal, cus­toms house and uni­ver­si­ty in the Amer­i­c­as. This colo­nial town, found­ed in 1498, was laid out on a grid pat­tern that became the mod­el for almost all town plan­ners in the New World.