Sights in Cuba
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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.
Bus 5 (20 centavos) from Plaza de Marte in central Santiago passes this way, or you can hire a…
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Club Habana
This fabulously eclectic mansion in Flores dating from 1928 once housed the Havana Biltmore Yacht & Country Club. In the 1950s the establishment gained brief notoriety when it famously denied entry to Cuban president Fulgencio Batista on the grounds that he was ‘black’ (Batista was in fact of mixed blood with a black mother and a part-Chinese father). Castro had better luck when he dropped by for dinner some 30 years later and the club remains one of the few places where he has dined in public. These days the history of the establishment seems to have swung full circle and it is again a popular hangout for foreign correspondents and diplomats. The club has its own beach,…
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Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás
One of Havana's oldest and most famous cigar factories, the landmark neoclassical Real Fábrica de Tabacos Partagás was founded in 1845 by a Spaniard named Jaime Partagás. Today some 400 workers toil for up to 12 hours a day in here rolling such famous cigars as Montecristos and Cohibas. As far as tours go, Partagás is the most popular and reliable factory to visit. Tour groups check out the ground floor first, where the leaves are unbundled and sorted, before proceeding to the upper floors to watch the tobacco get rolled, pressed, adorned with a band and boxed. Though interesting in an educational sense, the tours here are often rushed and a little robotic, and some…
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Parque Almendares
Running along the banks of the city's Río Almendares, below the bridge on Calle 23, is this wonderful oasis of greenery and fresh air in the heart of chaotic Havana. The park was restored in 2003, and the restorers did a beautiful job: benches now line the river promenade and plants grow profusely. There are also many facilities here, including an antiquated miniature golf course, the Anfiteatro Parque Almendares (a small outdoor performance space) and a playground. There are several good places to eat.
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Fortaleza de San Carlos de la Cabaña
This 18th-century colossus was built between 1763 and 1774 on a long, exposed ridge on the east side of Havana harbor to fill a weakness in the city's defenses. In 1762 the British had taken Havana by gaining control of this strategically important ridge, and it was from here that they shelled the city mercilessly into submission. In order to prevent a repeat performance, the Spanish King Carlos III ordered the construction of a massive fort that would repel future invaders. Measuring 700m from end to end and covering a whopping 10 hectares, it is the largest Spanish colonial fortress in the Americas.
The impregnability of the fort meant that no invader ever attacked it,…
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El Prado
Construction of this stately European-style boulevard (officially known as Paseo de Martí) began outside the city walls in 1770, and the work was completed in the mid-1830s during the term of Captain General Miguel Tacón. He also constructed the original Parque Central. The idea behind El Prado was to create in Habana a boulevard as splendid as any found in Paris, Florence or Madrid. The famous bronze lions that guard the central promenade at either end were added in 1928.
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Artisan Market
If art and history are your thing you've come to the wrong place. Varadero's reputation as a font of cultural interaction is not exactly legendary. Nevertheless there are a few sights worth pondering over if the beach banality starts to wear a bit thin.
The Parque Central and adjacent Parque de las 8000 Taquillas host the biggest Artisan Market in town and nestled among the uva caleta (sea grape) trees it's a pretty part of the public beach.
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Valle de los Ingenios
The ruins of dozens of ingenios (small 19th-century sugar mills), including slave quarters and manor houses, are scattered throughout this valley. The royal palms, waving cane and rolling hills are timelessly beautiful. The prime sight is Manaca Iznaga, an estate purchased in 1795 by the dastardly Pedro Iznaga, who became rich by trafficking in slaves.
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Iglesia de Santo Tomás
Tracking up Calle Felix Peña, you can orientate yourself by the baroque bell tower of this ecclesial building, one in a trio of notable, if dilapidated, 18th-century churches in this neighborhood.
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Museo de la Lucha Clandestina
Up the slope and to the right is a former police station attacked by M-26-7 activists on November 30, 1956, to divert attention from the arrival of the tardy yacht Granma, carrying Fidel Castro and 81 others. The gorgeous colonial-style building now houses this museum detailing the underground struggle against Batista in the 1950s. It's a fascinating, if macabre, story enhanced by far-reaching views from the balcony. Across the street is the house where Fidel Castro lived from 1931 to 1933, while a student in Santiago de Cuba (not open for visits).
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Palacio de los Matrimonios
The neo-Renaissance Palacio de los Matrimonios is a notable Prado building.
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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.…
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Señora Amelia Goyri
After entering the neo-Romanesque northern gateway (1870), there’s the tomb of independence leader General Máximo Gómez (1905) on the right (look for the bronze face in a circular medallion). Further along past the first circle, and also on the right, are the monument to the firefighters (1890) and the neo-Romanesque Capilla Central (1886) in the center of the cemetery. Just northeast of this chapel is the graveyard’s most celebrated (and visited) tomb, that of Señora Amelia Goyri, better known as La Milagrosa (the miraculous one), who died while giving birth on May 3, 1901. The marble figure of a woman with a large cross and a baby in her arms is easy to find, due…
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Universidad de la Habana
Founded by Dominican monks in 1728 and secularized in 1842, Havana University began life in Habana Vieja before moving to its present site in 1902. The existing neoclassical complex dates from the second quarter of the 20th century, and today some 30,000 students follow courses in social sciences, humanities, natural sciences, mathematics and economics here.
Perched on a Vedado hill at the top of the famous escalinata (stairway), near the Alma Mater statue, the university's central quadrangle, the Plaza Ignacio Agramonte, displays a tank captured by Castro's rebels in 1958. Directly in front is the Librería Alma Mater (library) and, to the left, the Museo de Historia…
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Museo de la Revolución
The Museo de la Revolución is housed in the former Presidential Palace, constructed between 1913 and 1920 and used by a string of cash-embezzling Cuban presidents, culminating in Fulgencio Batista. The world-famous Tiffany's of New York decorated the interior, and the shimmering Salón de los Espejos (Room of Mirrors) was designed to resemble the room of the same name at the Palace of Versailles. In March 1957 the palace was the target of an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Batista led by revolutionary student leader José Antonio Echeverría. The museum itself descends chronologically from the top floor starting with Cuba's pre-Columbian culture and extending to…
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Parque de la Fraternidad
Leafy Parque de la Fraternidad was established in 1892 to commemorate the fourth centenary of the Spanish landing in the Americas. A few decades later it was remodeled and renamed to mark the 1927 Pan-American Conference. The name is meant to signify American brotherhood, hence the many busts of Latin and North American leaders that embellish the green areas – including one of US president, Abraham Lincoln. Today the park is the terminus of numerous metro bus routes, and is sometimes referred to as 'Jurassic Park' because of the plethora of photogenic old American cars now used as colectivos (collective taxis) that congregate here.
The Fuente de la India (on a traffic…
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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…
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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…
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Castillo de la Real Fuerza
On the seaward side of Plaza de Armas is the oldest existing fort in the Americas, built between 1558 and 1577 on the site of an earlier fort destroyed by French privateers in 1555. The west tower is crowned by a copy of a famous bronze weather vane called La Giraldilla; the original was cast in Havana in 1632 by Jerónimo Martínez Pinzón and is popularly believed to be of Doña Inés de Bobadilla, the wife of gold explorer Hernando de Soto. The original is now kept in the Museo de la Ciudad, and the figure also appears on the Havana Club rum label. Imposing and indomitable, the castle is ringed by an impressive moat and today shelters the Museo de Navegación, which…
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Cueva de los Portales
During the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara transferred the headquarters of the Western Army to this rather spectacular cave, 11km west of Parque la Güira and 16km north of Entronque de Herradura on the Carretera Central. The cave is set in a beautiful remote area among steep-sided vine-covered mogotes and was declared a national monument in the 1980s. A small outdoor museum contains a few of Che's roughshod artifacts including his bed and the table where he played chess (while the rest of the world stood at the brink of nuclear Armageddon). Three other caves called El Espejo, El Salvador and Cueva Oscura are up on the hillside. Again, this area…
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Palacio de Los Capitanes Generales
Filling the whole west side of the Plaza de Armas, this former palace is one of Cuba’s most majestic baroque buildings. It stands on the site of Habana’s original church, the Parroquial Mayor, which was established in 1574 but was damaged by the explosion of the Invencible in Habana harbor in 1741. Due to ongoing damage, the church was subsequently demolished in 1776. The current building dates from the late 1770s and it has served many purposes over the years. From 1791 until 1898, it was the residence of the Spanish captains general. From 1899 until 1902, the US military governors were based here, and during the first two decades of the 20th century the building…
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Bacardí Rum Factory
While it's not as swanky as its modern Bahamas HQ, the original Bacardí factory which 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 the…
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Cuartel Moncada
Santiago's famous Moncada Barracks is named after Guillermón Moncada, a War of Independence fighter who was held prisoner here in 1874, though these days the name is more synonymous with one of history's greatest failed putsches.
The first barracks on this site was constructed by the Spanish in 1859, and in 1938 the present crenellated building was completed. Moncada earned immortality on the morning of July 26, 1953, when more than 100 revolutionaries led by then little known Fidel Castro stormed Batista's troops at what was then Cuba's second-most important military garrison.
After the Revolution, the barracks, like all others in Cuba, was converted into a school…
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US Interests Section
The modern seven-story building with the high security fencing at the western end of this open space is the US Interests Section, first set up by the Carter administration in the late 1970s. Surrounded by hysterical graffiti, the building is the site of some of the worst tit-for-tat finger-wagging on the island. Facing the office front is the Plaza de la Dignidad, built during the Elián González saga to host major in-your-face protests under the nose of the Americans. Concerts, protests and marches – some one-million strong – are still held here.
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Parque Central & Around
Diminutive Parque Central is a scenic haven from the belching buses and roaring taxis that ply their way along the Prado. The park, long a microcosm of daily Havana life, was expanded to its present size in the late 19th century after the city walls were knocked down. The marble statue of José Martí (1905) at its center was the first of thousands to be erected in Cuba. Raised 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 over to one side is the group of baseball fans who linger 24/7 at the famous Esquina Caliente, discussing form, tactics and the Havana teams'…
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