Santo Domingo vs Tours

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Santo Domingo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈsanto ðoˈmiŋɡo] meaning "Saint Dominic"), once known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. As of 2010, the city had a total population of 2,908,607, when including the metropolitan area. The city is coterminous with the boundaries of the Distrito Nacional ("D.N.", "National District"), itself bordered on three sides by Santo Domingo Province. Founded by the Spanish in 1496, on the east bank of the Ozama River and then moved by Nicolás de Ovando in 1502 to the west bank of the river, the city is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the Americas, and was the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World. Santo Domingo is the site of the first university, cathedral, castle, monastery, and fortress in the New World.

The city's Colonial Zone was declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Santo Domingo was called Ciudad Trujillo (Spanish pronunciation: [sjuˈðað tɾuˈxiʝo]), from 1936 to 1961, after the Dominican Republic's dictator, Rafael Trujillo, named the capital after himself. Following his assassination, the city resumed its original designation. Santo Domingo is the cultural, financial, political, commercial and industrial center of the Dominican Republic, with the country's most important industries being located within the city. Santo Domingo also serves as the chief seaport of the country. The city's harbor at the mouth of the Ozama River accommodates the largest vessels, and the port handles both heavy passenger and freight traffic. Temperatures are high year round, with cooler breezes during winter time.

Source: Wikipedia

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Tours ( TOOR, French: [tuʁ] (listen)) is the prefecture of the Indre-et-Loire department and largest city in the Centre-Val de Loire region of Western France, although it is not the regional prefecture, which is the region's second-largest city, Orléans. In 2017, the commune of Tours had 135,787 inhabitants; the population of the whole metropolitan area was 495,379.Tours stands on the lower reaches of the Loire river, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Former Caesarodunum city of the Turones, founded by the Emperor Augustus, it possesses one of the largest amphitheaters of the Roman Empire. Known for the Battle of Tours (732), it is a National Sanctuary with Saint Martin, Gregory of Tours and Alcuin under the Merovingians and the Carolingians, with the adoption by the Capetians of the local currency the Livre tournois which became the currency of the kingdom. Capital of the county of Tours which became the Touraine, the garden of France. First city of the silk industry, wanted by Louis XI, royal capital under the Valois Kings with its Loire castles and city of art with the School of Tours.

Capital of loyalty during the French Wars of Religion and city of retreat in June 1940 which will lead it to be partly destroyed. The White and Blue city keeps nevertheless a historical center registered in the UNESCO and city of art and history with its Vieux-Tours, a remarkable patrimonial site. The garden city concentrates a green heritage and an urban landscape strongly influenced by its natural space. The historic city that is nicknamed "Le Petit Paris" and its region by its history and culture, has always been a land of birth or host to many personalities, international sporting events, university city with more than 30,000 students in 2019. Culinary city with its specialities : rillettes, rillons, Touraine vineyards, AOC Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine cheeses and nougats.The city is also the end-point of the annual Paris–Tours cycle race.

Source: Wikipedia