Monument sights in Caribbean Islands
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National Heroes Park
The 30-hectare oval-shaped National Heroes Park was the Kingston Racecourse. Today its north end is a forlorn wasteland grazed by goats. At the park’s southern end, however, National Heroes Circle contains some intriguing statues and memorials. The tomb of Sir Alexander Bustamante is a flat marble slab beneath an arch. More interesting is the Memorial to 1865, commemorating the Morant Bay Rebellion with a rock on a pedestal flanked by bronze busts of Abraham Lincoln and a black slave with a sword. Marcus Garvey is also buried here, as is ex-premier Norman Manley, whose body was flown here from England in 1964 and reinterred with state honors. The Manley Monument, hon…
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Cuartel Moncada
With a trapezoid footprint from General Portuondo to Paseo de Martí and Av de los Libertadores to Av Moncada, is named for Guillermón Moncada, a prisoner here in 1874 who later fought for independence from Spain during the 'Little War' of 1879. The first barracks on this site were constructed by the Spanish in 1859, and in 1938 the present buildings were completed.
On the morning of July 26, 1953, more than 100 revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro attacked Batista's troops here at what was at the time Cuba's second most important military garrison. The revolutionaries had hoped the assault would spark a general uprising throughout Cuba, but things went awry when the driv…
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Parque Central
A small but scenic haven from the belching buses and roaring taxis that ply their way along Paseo de Martí, Parque Central has long been a microcosm of daily Habana life. The park was expanded to its present size in the late 19th century after the city walls were knocked down, and the marble statue of José Martí at its center was the first of thousands to be erected in Cuba. Raised in 1905 on the 10th anniversary of the poet’s death, the monument is ringed by 28 palm trees planted to signify Martí’s birth date, January 28. Hard to miss is the group of baseball fans who linger, seemingly 24 hours a day, within ball-pitching distance of the statue’s marble base at the fa…
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Colina Lenin
About 1.5km from the ferry you’ll see a high metal stairway that gives access to one of only two monuments in Habana to Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, better known to his friends and enemies as Lenin. Conceived in 1924 (before onetime Soviet stooge Fidel Castro was even born) by the Socialist mayor of Regla, Antonio Borsch, the monument was created to honor Lenin’s death, and was one of the first of its kind outside the USSR. Above the monolithic image of Lenin is an olive tree planted by Bosch surrounded by seven lithe figures; unlike many other Soviet-inspired monuments you’ll find in Cuba, this one creates hope. A small exhibition on the history of Colina Lenin is in a …
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Kingston Parish Church
The gleaming white edifice facing William Grant Park’s southeast corner is Kingston Parish Church, today serving a much reduced congregation of true Kingstonians – those ‘born under the clock’ (within earshot of its bell). The original church was destroyed in the 1907 earthquake and was replaced (in concrete) by the existing building. Note the tomb dating to 1699, the year the original church was built. Admiral Benbow, the commander of the Royal Navy in the West Indies at the turn of the 18th century, lies beneath a tombstone near the High Altar. Marble plaques commemorate soldiers of the West Indian regiments who died of fever or other hardships during colonial wars.…
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San Juan Hill
Next to the Parque Zoológico entrance is a fenced-in expanse surrounded by cannons. On this spot, Santiago de Cuba's Spanish garrison surrendered two weeks after the battle of San Juan Hill in 1898. Continue through the grounds of the adjacent Motel San Juan to San Juan Hill proper, where US, Cuban and Spanish troops faced off on July 1, 1898.
Some of the original cannons and trenches can still be seen, and there are numerous monuments (admission free), including a bronze figure of a 'Rough Rider' in the center of the park. There's a whopping view of La Gran Piedra from this hill.
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Fuente de la India
Don’t miss this white Carrara marble fountain, carved by Giuseppe Gaginni in 1837 for the count of Villanueva, situated on a traffic island in front of the Hotel Saratoga. It portrays a regal indigenous woman adorned with a crown of eagle’s feathers and seated on a throne surrounded by four gargoylesque dolphins. In one hand she holds a horn-shaped basket filled with fruit, in the other she holds a shield bearing the city’s coat of arms - a golden key between two mountains, a sun above the sea, three stripes emblazoned on a white background, and a royal palm.
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Rodney Memorial
Dominating Parade square on the north side is the elaborate Rodney Memorial, built in honor of Admiral George Rodney, who crowned his four-year service as commander-in-chief of the West Indian Naval Station in 1782 when he saved Jamaica from a combined French and Spanish invasion fleet at the Battle of the Saints. He stands within a cupola temple, with sculpted panel reliefs showing the battle scenes. The monument is fronted by two brass cannons from the French flagship.
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Memorial a los Mártires de Barbados
Las Tunas’ most evocative sight, Memorial a los Mártires de Barbados, is located in the former home of Carlos Leyva González, an Olympic fencer who was killed in the nation’s worst terrorist atrocity: the bombing of Cubana Flight 455 in 1976. Individual photos of the victims of the attack, which included the entire 24-member Cuban Olympic fencing team, line the museum walls and provide a poignant reminder of the fated Flight 455.
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Monumento a Julio Antonio Mella
At the bottom of the Havana University steps is the Monumento a Julio Antonio Mella, a monument to the student leader who founded the first Cuban Communist Party in 1925. In 1929 the dictator Machado had Mella assassinated in Mexico City. More interesting than the monument itself are the black-and-white Mella portraits permanently mounted in the wall in the little park across San Lázaro.
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Monumento a la Toma del Tren Blindado
This boxcar museum, east on Independencia just over the river, marks the spot where 18 men under the command of Che Guevara, equipped with rifles and grenades, captured a 22-car armored train containing 350 heavily armed Batista troops. Amazingly, this battle, which took place on December 29, 1958, only lasted 90 minutes. The bulldozer that the guerrillas used to cut the railway line is on a pedestal nearby.
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Monumento a Calixto García
Guarding the entrance to Calle G on the Malecón is the equestrian Monumento a Calixto García, paying homage to the valiant Cuban general who was prevented by US military leaders in Santiago de Cuba from attending the Spanish surrender in 1898. Twenty-four bronze plaques around the statue provide a history of García’s 30-year struggle for Cuban independence.
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Bust of Ernest Hemingway
Next to the Torreón de Cojímar and framed by a neoclassical archway is a gilded bust of Ernest Hemingway erected by the residents of Cojímar in 1962. Hemingway came here regularly in the 1940s and ‘50s and moored his boat in the nearby harbor. His friend and sea captain, Gregorio Fuentes, lived in the green-and-white house at Calle 98 until 2002, when he died aged 101.
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El Pinero
On Calle 28, you’ll see a huge ferry painted black and white and set up as a memorial next to the river. This is El Pinero, the original boat used to ferry passengers between La Isla and the main island from the 1920s until 1974. On May 15, 1955, Castro and the other prisoners released from Moncada returned to the main island on El Pinero.
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Memorial Vicente García
The Memorial Vicente García is a colonial-era structure that commemorates Las Tunas’ great War of Independence hero who captured the town from the Spanish in 1876 and torched it 21 years later when the colonizers sought to reclaim it. The limited exhibits include antique weapons and some grainy photos.
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Arco de Triunfo
Start your wanderings in the town center at Parque José Martí, passing under the Arco de Triunfo the only one of its kind in Cuba and dedicated to Cuban independence. This impressive monument ushers you into the heart of the park, dropping you at the feet of José Martí rendered in marble.
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Casa de Los Mártires de Trinidad
It’s easy to miss the small Casa de los Mártires de Trinidad, dedicated to 72 Trinidad residents who died in the struggle against Fulgencio Batista, the campaign against the counterrevolutionaries, and the little-mentioned war in Angola.
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Parque Martí
Manageable and friendly, Ciego de Ávila engenders a leisurely pace and the switched-on staff at the Infotur office can pass on plenty of recommendations. Check out Parque Martí first - with the inevitable monument to José Martí (1925).
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Negro Aroused Statue
The Negro Aroused statue is actually a replica; the original is in the National Gallery. This bronze statue depicting a crouched black man breaking free from bondage is the work of Jamaica’s foremost sculptor, the late Edna Manley.
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Puente Yayabo
The city's most famous sight is the Puente Yayabo, a quadruple-arched brick bridge built by the Spanish in 1815, now a national monument. The structure actually looks more English than Cuban, especially when glimpsed on the ubiquitous local postcards.
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Cudjoe Monument
Accompong is centered on the tiny 'Parade Ground,' where the Presbyterian church looks over a small monument that honors Cudjoe, the Maroon leader (the statue next to it is that of Leonard Parkinson, another Maroon freedom fighter).
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Parque Lennon
It is Havana’s third Lennon statue, a hyper-realistic study of the former Beatle, John, that graces out-of-the-way Parque Lennon in suburban Vedado, which pulls in the lion’s share of the visitors.
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Parque Libertad
A few blocks directly west of Plaza de la Vigía is Parque Libertad with several more of Matanzas' most stimulating sights, including a bronze statue (1909) of José Martí in the center.
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Bank of Jamaica
The Bank of Jamaica, the national mint and treasury at the east end of Ocean Blvd, is fronted by a tall concrete statue of Noel 'Crab' Nethersole (Minister of Finance from 1955 to 1969).
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Catedral de San Carlos Borromeo
Catedral de San Carlos Borromeo is a once-great neoclassical cathedral constructed in 1693 and rebuilt in the 1750s that has suffered terribly after years of neglect.
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