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The Village of Altos de Chavon |
This Dominican Republic landmark may remind you of a movie set | |||
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Altos de Chavon is part of the sprawling Casa de Campo mega-resort in La Romana, about 100 miles east of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. The Altos de Chavon village construction began in 1976, taking 6 years and an estimated $36 million to complete. A living movie set, not theme park, may be the best way to characterize Altos’ 16th Mediterranean village replica since the complex was designed by Roberto Copa, a former Paramount Studios set designer, and Charles Bluhdorn, chairman of Gulf+Western Industries who made its Paramount subsidiary into Hollywood's No. 1 income producing studio. Altos de Chavon was created as an afterthought due to the construction of the road now leading to Bayahibe that had to be blasted through a mountain of stone in 1976. Despite its movie-based background, the Altos de Chavon Village also is a working movie set with a diverse set of characters: artists, sculptors, chefs and more. Altos de Chavon's buildings are made of bleached coral block and red sandstone and capped with red tile roofs, all with an aged, weathered appearance. The coral block walls appear massively thick, as if made to withstand a medieval siege by barbarians. The centerpiece of the Altos de Chavon Village is St. Stanislaus Church Regional Museum of Archaeology |
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