Sights in Eastern Cuba
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Iglesia de Santo Tomás
North of the historic center, Santiago de Cuba turns residential. Tracking up Calle Felix Peña, you can orientate yourself by the baroque bell tower of Iglesia de Santo Tomás, one in a trio of notable, if dilapidated, 18th-century churches in this neighborhood.
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Museo de la Lucha Clandestina
This gorgeous colonial-style building houses the Museo de la Lucha Clandestina, detailing the underground struggle against Batista in the 1950s. It’s a fascinating, if macabre, story enhanced by far-reaching views from the balcony.
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El Morro
From El Morro you also get a good look at the hamlets of La Socapa and Cayo Granma across the bay, both accessible by ferry from Punta Gorda or Ciudamar. In La Socapa you can hike uphill to the ruins of an old Spanish battery where five cannons, designed to create crossfire with the castle, still stand guard. The only shooting nowadays is by photographers taking in the excellent castle views; for some private beach time, you can explore west along the deserted coast.
Cayo Granma is a little fantasy island of red-roofed dwellings tucked in a crook of the Bahía de Santiago de Cuba. A short uphill hike to its highest point brings you to the Iglesia de San Rafael. Alternative…
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Cementerio Santa Ifigenia
Nestled peacefully on the western edge of the city, the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia is second only to Havana’s Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón in its importance and grandiosity. Created in 1868 to accommodate the victims of the War of Independence and a simultaneous yellow-fever outbreak, the Santa Ifigenia includes many great historical figures among its 8000-plus tombs. Names to look out for include Tomás Estrada Palma (1835–1908), Cuba’s now disgraced first president; Emilio Bacardí y Moreau (1844–1922) of the famous rum dynasty; María Grajales, the widow of independence hero Antonio Maceo, and Mariana Grajales, Maceo’s mother; 11 of the 31 generals of the independence strugg…
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Cueva del Aguas
Cueva del Aguas is a cave with a sparkling, freshwater swimming hole inside. To get there, head past the Fuerte Matachín, hike southeast past the baseball stadium and along the beach for about 20 minutes to a rickety wooden bridge over the Río Miel.
From April to June, you'll have to take a skiff across the flooded river mouth before reaching the bridge, which costs a peso to cross and is open from sunrise to sunset. After the bridge, turn left until you come to a Gaviota hut, where you have to pay around to proceed further. Going right at the Gaviota hut and following the dirt road through coconut groves and past clapboard houses for 45 minutes, you'll come to the blue…
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Bacardí Rum Factory
While it’s not as swanky as its modern Bahamas HQ, the original Bacardí Rum Factory, opened in 1868, oozes history. Spanish-born founder Don Facundo dreamt up the world-famous Bacardí bat symbol after finding a colony of the winged mammals living in the factory’s rafters. Although the family fled the island after the Revolution, the Cuban government has continued to make traditional rum here – the signature Ron Caney brand coupled with smaller amounts of Ron Santiago and Ron Varadero. In total, the factory knocks out nine million liters a year, 70% of which is exported. There are currently no factory tours, but the Barrita de Ron Caney, a tourist bar attached to t…
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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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Loma de San Juan
Future American president Teddy Roosevelt forged his reputation on Loma de San Juan where, flanked by the immortal rough-riders, he supposedly led a fearless cavalry charge against the Spanish to seal a famous US victory. In reality, it is doubtful that Roosevelt even mounted his horse in Santiago, while the purportedly clueless Spanish garrison – outnumbered 10 to one – managed to hold off more than 6000 American troops for 24 hours. Protected on pleasantly manicured grounds adjacent to the modern-day Motel San Juan, the Loma deSan Juan marks the spot of the Spanish-Cuban-American War’s only land battle, which took place on July 1, 1898. Cannons, trenches and numerou…
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Museo–Casa Natal de Antonio Maceo
Two long blocks northwest of the church, Iglesia de Santo Tomás, is the important but little visited Museo–Casa Natal de Antonio Maceo where the mulato general and hero of both Wars of Independence was born on June 14, 1845. Known as the Bronze Titan in Cuba for his bravery in battle, Maceo was the definitive ‘man of action’ to Martí’s ‘man of ideas.’ In his 1878 Protest of Baraguá, he rejected any compromise with the colonial authorities and went into exile rather than sell out to the Spanish. Landing at Playa Duaba in 1895, he marched his army as far west as Pinar del Río before being killed in action near Havana in 1896. This simple museum exhibits highl…
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Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
It might not be particularly old, but Santiago’s most important church, the imposing, five-nave Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción is stunning both inside and out. There has been a cathedral on this site since the city’s inception in the 1520s, though a series of pirate raids, earthquakes and dodgy architects put paid to at least three previous incarnations. The present cathedral, characterized by its two neoclassical towers and open-winged trumpeting archangel, was completed in 1922 and it is believed that the remains of first colonial governor, Diego Velázquez, are still buried underneath. Meticulously restored, the cathedral’s interior is a magnificent mélan…
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Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano
In the Parque Céspedes's northwestern corner lies the Casa de Diego Velázquez. Dating from 1522, this is the oldest house still standing in Cuba. Restored in the late 1960s, the Andalusian-style facade (you'll know it by its enclosed balcony with the fine, Moorish-style woodwork) was restored in the late 1960s, and opened in 1970 as the Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano.
The ground floor was originally a trading-house and gold foundry, while the upstairs was the personal residence of Velázquez himself.
Today, rooms display period furnishings and decoration from the 16th to 19th centuries. Visitors are also taken through an adjacent neoclassical house dating from the 1…
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Casa de Diego Velázquez
In the northwestern corner of Parque Céspedes lies the Casa de Diego Velázquez. The oldest house still standing in Cuba, this early colonial abode dating from 1522 was the official residence of the island’s first governor. Restored in the late 1960s, the Andalusian-style facade with fine, wooden lattice windows was inaugurated in 1970 as the Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano. The ground floor was originally a trading house and gold foundry, while the upstairs was where Velázquez lived. Today, rooms display period furnishings and decoration from the 16th to 19th centuries. Visitors are also taken through an adjacent 19th-century neoclassical house.
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Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
Crying out for a major renovation, the rapidly disintegrating Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción was built in 1833 on the site of a much older church. Its most famous artifact is the priceless Cruz de La Parra, a wooden cross said to have been erected by Columbus near Baracoa in 1492. Carbon dating has authenticated the cross’ age (it dates from the late 1400s), but has indicated that it was originally made out of indigenous Cuban wood, thus disproving the legend that Columbus brought the cross from Europe. The church was closed at the time of writing and the cross was being displayed in the last house on Calle Antonio Maceo, behind the church to the right.
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Jardín de los Helechos
Two kilometers from downtown Santiago de Cuba on the road to El Caney, the peaceful Jardín de los Helechos is a lush haven of 350 types of ferns and 90 types of orchids that started life in 1976 as the private collection of Santiagüero Manuel Caluff. In 1984 Caluff donated his collection of 1000-plus plants to the Academia de Ciencias de Cuba (Cuban Academy of Science), which continues to keep the 3000-sq-meter garden in psychedelic bloom (the best time for orchids is November to January). The center of the garden has an inviting dense copse-cum-sanctuary dotted with benches.
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Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardí Moreau
Narrow Pío Rosado links Calle Heredia to Calle Aguilera and the fabulous Grecian facade of the Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardí Moreau. Founded in 1899 by the rum magnate/war hero/city mayor, Emilio Bacardí y Moreau (the palatial building was built to spec), the museum is one of Cuba’s oldest and most eclectic. Artifacts amassed from Bacardí’s travels include an extensive weapons collection, paintings from the Spanish costumbrismo (19th-century artistic movement that predated Romanticism) school and the only Egyptian mummy on the island.
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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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Playa Blanca
Playa Blanca is an idyllic spot for a picnic or sunset cocktails, and makes a nice day trip. Passing the Fuerte Matachín, hike southeast past the baseball stadium and along the beach for about 20 minutes to a rickety wooden bridge over the Río Miel. From April to June, you'll have to take a skiff across the flooded river mouth before reaching the bridge, which costs a peso to cross and is open from sunrise to sunset. After the bridge, turn left until you come to a Gaviota hut, where you have to pay to proceed further. If you continue left for 15 minutes you come to the beach.
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Cuidad Escolar 26 de Julio Museum
In 1960, after the triumph of the revolution, the Moncada Barracks, like all barracks in Cuba, were converted into a school called Cuidad Escolar 26 de Julio, and in 1967 a museum was installed near gate No 3, where the main attack took place. Bastista's soldiers cemented over the original bullet holes from the attack so the Castro government remade them (this time without guns) after the revolution as a poignant reminder.
The museum outlines the history of Cuba from the Spanish conquest to the present, with heavy emphasis on the revolution, and it's one of Cuba's best.
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Museo Arqueológico
Baracoa’s newest and most impressive museum is the Museo Arqueológico, situated in Las Cuevas del Paraíso 800m southeast of the Hotel El Castillo. The exhibits here are showcased in a series of caves that once acted as Taíno burial chambers. Among nearly 2000 authentic Taíno pieces are unearthed skeletons, ceramics, 3000-year-old petroglyphs and a replica of the Ídolo de Tabaco, a sculpture found in Maisí in 1903 that is considered to be one of the most important Taíno finds in the Caribbean. One of the staff will enthusiastically show you around.
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Casa Natal de José María de Heredia
The Casa Natal de José María de Heredia contains a small museum illustrating the life of one of Cuba’s greatest Romantic poets (1803–39) and the man after whom the street is named. Heredia’s most notable work, Ode to Niagara, is inscribed on the wall outside, and attempts to parallel the beauty of Canada’s Niagara Falls with his personal feelings of loss about his homeland. In common with many Cuban independence advocates, Heredia was forced into exile, dying in Mexico in 1839.
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Parque Histórico Abel Santamaría
The Parque Histórico Abel Santamaría is the site of the former Saturnino Lora Civil Hospital, stormed by Abel Santamaría and 60 others on that fateful July day. On October 16, 1953, Fidel Castro was tried in the Escuela de Enfermeras for leading the Moncada attack. It was here that he made his famous History Will Absolve Me speech. The park contains a giant cubist fountain engraved with the countenances of Abel Santamaría and José Martí that gushes out a veritable Niagara Falls of water.
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Museo Municipal
The Fuerte Matachín (1802) at the southern entrance to town, now houses the Museo Municipal. Though small, this museum showcases an engaging chronology of Cuba’s oldest settlement including polymita snail shells, the story of Che Guevara and the chocolate factory, and exhibits relating to pouty Magdalena Menasse (née Rovieskuya, ‘La Rusa’) after whom Alejo Carpentier based his famous book, La Consagración de la Primavera (The Rite of Spring).
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Puerto Boniato
For a sweeping panorama of the Santiago de Cuba basin and a bird's-eye view of the provincial penitentiary, you can't beat Puerto Boniato. It's on the ridge that separates the Santiago de Cuba basin from the province's Valle Central. To get there, go through the underpass near the Oro Negro gas station on the Carretera Central at the northern edge of Santiago de Cuba, and wind around and up for 8km. Over the pass, this road continues on to the Autopista Nacional and Dos Caminos.
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Playa Duaba
Playa Duaba is where Antonio Maceo and Flor Crombet landed in 1895. It's a beautiful band of dark beach backed by mountains. Heading northwest out of town toward Moa, take the one lane road for 2km beyond the airport where a break in the low-lying scrub leads to the beach. The water gets better further from the river mouth. The jejenes (sand fleas) are ferocious in the late afternoon. Fifty meters further along the road is the tranquil monument to the rebel landing.
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Plaza de Marte
Three busy blocks east of Plaza de Dolores is this 19th-century Spanish parade ground where prisoners were executed by firing squad during the colonial era. Today, Plaza de Marte is the site of Santiago de Cuba's esquina caliente (literally 'hot corner') where baseball fans debate the sport with wild abandon among monuments to various heroes of Cuban independence. Baseball is the most democratic space we have, Cubans will tell you, and it shows here.
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