San Pedro de Macoris

San Pedro de Macorís is a city and municipality (municipio) in the Dominican Republic and the capital of the San Pedro de Macorís province in the east region of the country; it is among the 10 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 university. 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", "The Sultana of the East" and many call it the "Capital of the East".[6]