Fodor's Expert Review Dominican Evangelical Church

Back in 1824, a sailing vessel called the Turtle Dove, carrying several hundred slaves that had escaped from Philadelphia, was blown ashore in Samaná. The historic Dominican Evangelical Church is the oldest original building left in Samaná. The structure actually came across the ocean from England in 1881 in a hundred pieces and was reassembled here, serving the spiritual needs of the African-American freedmen. In 1946 a city-wide fire wiped out most of Samaná's wooden buildings and Victorian architecture; this church was miraculously saved.