Torre Desan Juan Evangelista

The Torre de San Juan Evangelista is to the southeast. A church dating from Bayamo’s earliest years stood at this busy intersection until it was destroyed in the great fire of 1869. Later, the church’s tower served as the entrance to the first cemetery in Cuba, which closed in 1919. The cemetery was demolished in 1940, but the tower survived. A monument to local poet José Joaquín Palma (1844–1911) stands in the park diagonally across the street from the tower, and beside the tower is a bronze statue of Francisco Vicente Aguilera (1821–77), who led the independence struggle in Bayamo.