Santo Domingo’s San Francisco Ruins to be intervened for preservation

Santo Domingo.- The Colonial City Revitalization Program includes, among its works, the intervention of the Ruins of San Francisco to prevent its collapse in the event of being impacted by any natural phenomenon.

The goal is to prevent the monument from continuing to deteriorate and for this purpose conservation standards for this type of building will be applied.

“It consists of the construction of a temporary wooden structure to provide stability and firmness to the monument, using treated wood of high resistance and durability, which will support inside and outside its weakened walls, buttresses and vaults, protecting them from possible collapses due to atmospheric and telluric phenomena,” a press release explains.

The construction technology will be completed by adding steel plates for the joints of the wooden pieces, plus the application of carbon bars as reinforcements. It will also include conservation work on the walls, joints and roofs to halt its degradation.

The work does not contemplate assigning any use to this monument, since it will be the responsibility of Dominican society to determine the future use of this heritage building.

The intervention is the result of an analysis of the Structural Integrity of the Ruins of the San Francisco Monastery, carried out by a team of conservators headed by French expert Laure Marieu, which was delivered in January 2020 to the Dominican Republic through the ministries of Tourism and Culture and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The study shows the vulnerability of this monument to natural disasters, earthquakes and hurricanes.

In compliance with the norms of the Colonial City Revitalization Program, since 2021, the community peripheral to the San Francisco Convent and the Historic Center has been consulted and made aware of its state of fragility and the protection works to be carried out, for which two public consultations have been held.