Central Patria o Muerte

Ciego de Ávila Province


Cuba's sugar industry is preserved at this huge, rusting ex-sugar mill founded in 1914 in the village of Patria, 3km south of Morón. Guides explain the sugar-milling process from slave times to the factory's decommissioning in 2001. For an extra CUC$4, a 1920 Philadelphia-made Baldwin steam train can take you on a 5km ride through cane fields to Rancho Palma, a bucolic farm with a bar-restaurant where you can sample guarapo (pressed cane juice).

The mill and its 263-strong workforce were passed over to the Americans in 1919, and it remained in Yanqui hands until nationalization in 1960.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Ciego de Ávila Province attractions

1. Cockerel

1.66 MILES

Morón is famous for its emblematic cockerel, which stands guard on a roundabout opposite the Hotel Morón on the southern edge of town. It's named after a …

2. Terminal de Ferrocarriles

1.8 MILES

Morón has long been central Cuba's main railway crossroads and exhibits the most elegant railway station outside Havana. Built in 1923, the building's…

3. Museo Caonabo

2.01 MILES

In among the teeming sidewalks and peeling colonnades, this well-laid-out museum of history and archaeology is housed in Morón's former bank, an…

4. Parque Agramonte

2.65 MILES

Small park in the northern part of Morón with a small church and an old theater. The access road to Laguna de la Leche branches north from here.

5. Laguna de la Leche

5.92 MILES

Laguna de la Leche (Milk Lake), named for its reflective underwater lime deposits, is Cuba's largest natural lake (66 sq km). Its water content is a…

6. Laguna La Redonda

9.16 MILES

Anglers, listen up: 12km north of Morón, off the Cayo Coco road, this mangrove-rimmed, 4-sq-km lake has the island's best square-kilometer density of bass…

7. Loma de Cunagua

11.04 MILES

This wild, foliage-covered loma (hill), the province's only real high ground, was turned into a flora-and-fauna reserve in 1985. With its fabulous coastal…

8. El Pueblo Holandés

11.29 MILES

A small community with 49 red-roofed, Dutch-style dwellings, El Pueblo Holandés is on a hill next to the highway, 4km north of Laguna La Redonda. It was…