Santo Domingo - Museum of the Royal Houses Museo De las Casas Reales

The Museum of the Royal Houses in Santo Domingo is an enormous brick and coral building with high ceilings and wide staircases sweeping up to a grand salon hung with portraits of the Spanish kings. It originally consisted of two buildings, the Palace of the Captain-General and Palace of the Royal Audiencia (similar to a Supreme Court), which were both built in the beginning of the 16th C and joined by a single facade in the late 18th C.

Once the colonial administrative center for all the Spanish West Indies, Casa Reales is now a museum featuring Colonial era artifacts, including a re-creation of the governor's receiving room, maps, weapons and military uniforms.