Colonial Zone boasts the country’s first hotel-museum

Santo Domingo.- Culture minister Jose Antonio Rodriguez on Wednesdaycut the ribbon for the hotel "El Beaterio" (beguine), the country’s firsthotel-museum, located on Duarte St., in the heart of the Colonial Zone.

The official called the site as a space for the spirit, thesoul, which is still felt and breathed in the surroundings."

He said the structure was conceived by 16th CenturyJesuit priests as a refuge to house the women of the time who approached themseeking spirituality.

Rodriguez and Hotel president Nadine Giannetti headed the inaugural,attended by government officials, entrepreneurs, artists and cultural leaders.