Centro Leon
In further exploring the history of that part of the country, the best place for that would be the sleek, modern museum known as “Centro León” (built within the property of Dominican manufacturer E. León Jiménes). That firm is best-known for its line of hand-rolled cigars, as well as being the Dominican affiliate of Marlboro cigarettes. E. León Jiménes’ status as one of the country’s leading corporations affords it resources to put together various exhibits, including one showing the region’s pre-Columbian history of not only the Santiago region, but the rest of the island as well. Many of the artifacts exhibited there were from the local indigenous Arawak and Carib tribes (whose population was significantly reduced after the settlement of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his group of Spanish conquistadors in the southern part of the island – an area that’s now the nation’s capital, Santo Domingo).