Santiago de Cuba
Nestled peacefully on the city's western extremity, the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia is second only to Havana's Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón in its importance…
Must-see attractions in Santiago de Cuba
Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca del Morro
Santiago de Cuba
A Unesco World Heritage site since 1997, the San Pedro fort sits impregnably atop a 60m-high promontory at the entrance to Santiago harbor, 10km southwest…
Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago's most important church is stunning both inside and out. There has been a cathedral on this site since the city's inception in the 1520s, though…
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago's famous Moncada Barracks, a crenelated art deco building completed in 1938, is now synonymous with one of history's greatest failed putsches…
Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano
Santiago de Cuba
The oldest house still standing in Cuba, this arresting early colonial abode dating from 1522 was the official residence of the island's first governor,…
Museo Municipal Emilio Bacardí Moreau
Santiago de Cuba
Narrow Pío Rosado links Calle Heredia to Calle Aguilera and the fabulous Grecian facade of the Bacardí Museum. Founded in 1899 by the rum-magnate war hero…
Santiago de Cuba
This gorgeous yellow colonial-style building houses a museum detailing the underground struggle against Batista in the 1950s. It's a fascinating, if…
Santiago de Cuba
The museum inside the Cuartel Moncada is the best in town and one of the best in Cuba. Sometimes gory exhibits catalogue the details of the 1953 attack by…
Santiago de Cuba
A small, populated key near the jaws of the bay, Cayo Granma is a little fantasy island of red-roofed wooden houses – many of them on stilts above the…
Santiago de Cuba
Future American president Teddy Roosevelt forged his reputation on this small hillock where, flanked by the immortal rough riders, he supposedly led a…
Santiago de Cuba
While it's not as swanky as its modern Bermuda HQ, the original Bacardí factory, which opened in 1868, oozes history. Spanish-born founder Don Facundo…
Santiago de Cuba
This peaceful garden is a lush haven of 350 types of ferns and 90 types of orchids. It's the erstwhile private collection of santiagüero Manuel Caluff,…
Museo-Casa Natal de Antonio Maceo
Santiago de Cuba
This important museum is where the mulato general and hero of both Wars of Independence was born, on June 14, 1845, and exhibits highlights of Maceo's…
Santiago de Cuba
Founded in 1982 to study Caribbean life, this cultural institution organizes the Festival del Caribe and the Fiesta del Fuego every July and also hosts…
Santiago de Cuba
The music never stops on Calle Heredia, Santiago's most sensuous street and also one of its oldest. Melodies waft from the paint-peeled Casa de Cultura…
Parque Histórico Abel Santamaría
Santiago de Cuba
This is the site of the former Saturnino Lora Civil Hospital, stormed by Abel Santamaría and 60 others on that fateful July day (they were later tortured…
Santiago de Cuba
Archetype for romantic Cuban street life, Parque Céspedes is a throbbing kaleidoscope of walking, talking, hustling, flirting, guitar-strumming humanity…
Memorial de Vilma Espín Guillois
Santiago de Cuba
This erstwhile home of Cuba's former 'first lady,' Vilma Espín, the wife of Raúl Castro, and instrumental force in the success of the Cuban Revolution,…
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago's old French quarter was first settled by colonists from Haiti in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Set on a south-facing hillside…
Santiago de Cuba
Below the Tivolí quarter, this narrow park embellishes a dockside promenade opened in 1840 and redesigned in 1893. Refurbishment for the 2015…
Santiago de Cuba
As with all Cuban cities, Santiago has its bombastic Revolution Square. This one's placed strategically at the junction of two sweeping avenues and…
Santiago de Cuba
Guarding the entrance to the casco histórico, motorcycle-infested Plaza de Marte formerly served as a macabre 19th-century Spanish parade ground where…
Casa Natal de José María Heredia y Heredia
Santiago de Cuba
A minuscule museum illustrating the life of one of Cuba's greatest Romantic poets and the man after whom the street is named, José María Heredia y Heredia…
Santiago de Cuba
Now housed at the Bacardí Rum Factory, this modern little museum has well-presented exhibits and multilingual guides explaining the history and…
Casa Museo de Frank y Josué País
Santiago de Cuba
Integral to the success of the revolution, the young País brothers organized the underground section of the M-26-7 (26th of July Movement) in Santiago de…
Santiago de Cuba
A pedestrian-only street stretching from Plaza de Marte to the Paseo Alameda on the waterfront. Heaps of locals browse the shops and restaurants. For…
Casa de la Cultura Miguel Matamoros
Santiago de Cuba
The Casa de la Cultura Miguel Matamoros, on Parque Céspedes' eastern aspect, is the former San Carlos Club, a social center for wealthy santiagüeros until…
Santiago de Cuba
Cuba is obsessed with scale city models, and Santiago, with this incredibly detailed maqueta, is no exception. Interesting historical and architectural…
Santiago de Cuba
On the opposite side of the street to Parque Histórico Abel Santamaría, this court building was taken by fighters led by Raúl Castro during the Moncada…
Santiago de Cuba
The neoclassical Ayuntamiento was erected in the 1950s using a design from 1783 and was once the site of Hernán Cortés’ mayoral office. Fidel Castro…
Santiago de Cuba
East of Parque Céspedes is the pleasant and shady Plaza de Dolores, a former marketplace now dominated by the 18th-century Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de…
Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen
Santiago de Cuba
You can dig deeper into Santiago's ecclesiastical history in this tumbledown construction, a hall church dating from the 1700s that is the final resting…
Santiago de Cuba
The alfresco Balcón de Velázquez is the site of an old Spanish fort. It offers ethereal views over the terracotta-tiled roofs of the Tivolí neighborhood…
Santiago de Cuba
A worthwhile museum, this is a quick visit to study the history of Santiago's biggest shindig, the oldest and biggest Carnaval between Río and Mardi Gras…
Santiago de Cuba
Across the street from the Museo de la Lucha Clandestina is the house where Fidel Castro lived from 1931 to 1933 while a student in Santiago de Cuba…
Santiago de Cuba
This eclectic mansion (built 1906–10) was once the largest and most opulent in Santiago. Since 1974 it has been a developmental center for kids (pioneros)…
Santiago de Cuba
At the north end of Parque Alameda you'll see the old clock tower, aduana (customs house) and cigar factory. A curious mix of smart architecture and port…
Santiago de Cuba
A short but fascinating journey through the history of Cuban photography from Kodak to Korda, with little CIA spy cameras and lots of old and contemporary…
Santiago de Cuba
The Museo Arquidiocesano houses a dullish collection of furniture, liturgical objects and paintings including the Ecce Homo, believed to be Cuba’s oldest…
Santiago de Cuba
Situated opposite the Bacardí Museum, the equally Hellenic provincial government seat is another building from Cuba's 20th-century neoclassical revival…