San Pedro de Macoris

San Pedro de Macorís is a city and municipality (municipio) in the Dominican Republic. The capital of its eponymous province in the east region of the country, it is among the ten largest cities of the Dominican Republic.[4] The city has approximately 217,000 inhabitants, when including the whole municipality.[5] As a provincial capital, it houses the Universidad Central del Este. San Pedro de Macorís is also well known for producing professional baseball players at an exceptionally high per capita rate. The name San Pedro came before that of Macorís.[citation needed] There are three versions regarding the origin of the name: the first attributes it to the fact that there is a San Pedro Beach in the city port; the second sees it as a tribute to General Pedro Santana, who was president at the time; and the third simply said it was in order to distinguish it from San Francisco de Macorís, a city in the north.[citation needed] San Pedro de Macorís has been poetically referred to as "Macorís of the Sea" and "the Sultana of the East", and many call it the "Capital of the East".[6]