Santa Cruz de Barahona

Barahona
—  Municipality  —
Santa Cruz de Barahona
Barahona
Coordinates: 18°12′30″N 71°06′0″W
Country	Dominican Republic
Province	Barahona
Municipal Districts	3
Founded	1802
Municipality since	1858
Area
• Total	163.02 km2 (62.94 sq mi)
Elevation	10 m (30 ft)
Population (2010)
• Total	83,619
• Density	513/km2 (1,330/sq mi)
• Urban	82,649
	Including populations of La Guázara and Villa Central
Demonym	Barahonero (female, barahonera)
Time zone	AST (UTC-4)
• Summer (DST)	AST (UTC-4)
Distance:	80 km (50 mi) to Azua 200 km (120 mi) to Santo Domingo

The Dominican city of Santa Cruz de Barahona, or simply Barahona, is the head municipality of the Barahona province, on the southwest of the country.

It is the largest city of the Dominican southwest and the centre of the region.

Population

The municipality had, in 2002, a total population of 83,619: 41,663 men and 41,956 women. The urban population was 98.84% of the total population, one of the most urban municipality in the country. In this numbers are included the population of the municipal districts La Guázara and Villa Central. The population of Santa Cruz de Barahona without those municipal districts was 62,054.

History

Since the 18th century, the region was occupied by fishermen and people that came here to cut trees. When Toussaint L'Ouverture took the eastern part of the Hispaniola island in the name of France, he gave the order to create the town of Barahona in 1802 as part of the Ozama Department. After the Independence in 1844, Barahona was a military post of the Azua Province.

In 1858, Barahona was elevated to the category of municipality. When the province was created in 1881, Barahona was made its head municipality.

Geography

The city of Santa Cruz de Barahona is in a plain along the coast but part of the municipality is on the mountains of Sierra de Bahoruco.

Barahona is at 200 km to the west of Santo Domingo. The average temperature in the city is 26.1 °C and the average rainfall is 1,071.3 mm and it rains in 78.9 days.

The limits of the municipality are the municipality of Fundación to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, the municipality of La Ciénaga to the south and the municipality of Cabral to the west.

Santa Cruz de Barahana has three municipal districts; these are: El Cachón, La Guázara and Villa Central.

Economy

The main economic activity of the province is agriculture; the main product in the municipality is a very good coffee ("Barahona Type Coffee"), grown in the mountains of Eastern Bahoruco.

There are also some important industries, mainly to produce textiles to send to other countries, and sugar in the Ingenio Barahona ("Barahona Sugar Factory").

There is a port in the city; it is used to send coffee and sugar to other countries.