Monte Plata is a Dominican city and head municipality of the Monte Plata province.
The town was founded with people from Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata; they took the words "Monte" from the first town and "Plata" from the second town to form the name of the new town: "Monte Plata".
History
The city was founded in 1606 when the Spanish Governor Antonio Osorio destroyed, by orders of King Phillip III of Spain, the towns of Monte Cristi and Puerto Plata. The people and the cattle were moved to a new town that was given the name of Monte Plata to remember those two towns that were destroyed.
When the province of Monte Plata was created in 1982, the city was made the head municipality of this province.
Population
The municipality had, in , a total population of 26,192: 13,288 men and 12,904 women. The urban population was of the total population.
Geography
Monte Plata is in the northwestern part of the Llano Costero del Caribe (in English, "Caribbean Coastal Plain"), a large prairie with many important savannas.
The Sierra de Yamasá is found to the northeast of the municipality. Los Haitises is a karst region with many small hills; it is to the northwest of Monte Plata.
It has a total area of and has three municipal districts (a municipal district is a subdivision of a municipality); these are Boyá, Chirino and Don Juan.
The altitude of the city of Monte Plata is above sea level.
The municipality of Monte Plata has the municipality of Sabana Grande de Boyá to the north, the municipality of Bayaguana to the east, the Santo Domingo province to the south and the municipality of Yamasá to the west.
Climate
Monte Plata has a tropical wet climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: Af) with no dry or cold season as it is constantly moist (rainfalls during the whole year).
The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is . The month with the most precipitation on average is August with of rainfall, followed by May with .
The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is January with an average of followed by December with an average of .
Monte Plata is in a warm region; the average temperature for the year is . The warmest month, on average, is July with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .
Administrative division
The municipality of Monte Plata has three municipal districts:
Economy
Because there are many savannas, and by its history, the most important economic activity in the municipality is cattle raising is also important, mainly for milk.
Farming is also an important activity. Some crops are sugar cane and fruits like orange.