Sancti Spíritus City Attractions

Sancti Spíritus City - Sancti Spíritus - Other Cities and Attractions

Sancti Spíritus has many tourist attractions among which:

Agricultural Fair

Built in 1938, the Fair is north of the heart of the city. Run by the Cuban Ranchers Association, it became an emblematic site for cattle exhibitions, rodeo competitions and commercial events in Central Cuba. At present, the place gets crowded during the weekends.

Calle Llano

Calle Llano is the most atmospheric street in Sancti Spíritus, a bent-elbow cobblestone alleyway (one of the only remaining stone streets in town) of pastel-colored and tiled-roof houses. It's often very still, except for a few kids playing stickball.

Camejo Plaza

This square was named ‘Camejo Plaza’ because of its location next to Agustín Camejo’s mansion. At present, it is known as ‘Hanoi’, which is the heroic capital of Vietnam. It’s an homage of the local people to the brave people of Vietnam.

Colonia Española Building

This building formerly belonged to the Society of Instruction and Recess founded specially to increase cultural platform of the Spanish wealthy gentlemen in the colonial days, and to which only white people were allowed to enter.

It constitutes along with the major church an architectural jewel in the city. In the early years of the Revolution, it was converted into a place of entertainment of the former ‘Bernardo Arias Castillo’ Social Labor Union.

Conrado Benítez Cinema

Built in 1920 in an eclectic style, was initially a remarkably theater, but as the city became more and more populated, it was transformed into a cinema. It’s located in the heart of the city.

Culural Heritage Center

It’s a 16th century building that has undergone several restorations in its interior and exterior facades and the enormous backyard. It was the former house of a local Spanish top officer. Today it’s the headquarters of a group of researchers in charge of the study on the historial-social wealth of the city.

Iglesia Parroquial Mayor del Sancti Spíritus

A Roman-Baroque style building and one of Cuba’s oldest and well-preserved colonial churches. This small blue church with a tall bell tower was built 4 times; when the village was initially founded in 1514, after its transfer onto the Yayabo in 1522, then in 1612 and during the visit of Bishop Almendarez in 1680. The church's massive ceiling beams are impressive, as is the blue-and-yellow painted nave. Though the church is unlikely to wow most visitors, it is a quietly evocative, authentic colonial sight that recalls a day when Sancti Spíritus may have looked more like Trinidad.

José Antonio Huelga Stadium

This outdoor ballpark was the dream of everyone and his brother in the city until 1992, when the sport facility opened its doors under the name ‘José Antonio Huelga’, homegrown right-hander considered one of the Cuban greatest baseball players of all times. If you're in town in spring (Feb-May), you can catch a game of béisbol (or as it's known colloquially, pelota), played by the local professional baseball team.

Mural de la Juventud

This Mural of Youth is a stone-and-brick painting on a wall of a bustling avenue. It’s the work by one of the most important young creators of the city, Julio Neira. It was dedicated to the progressive youth movements gathered in Cuba during the 14th World Festival of Youth and Students. It represents the big beret of the revolutionary icon Ernersto Che Guevara.

Museum of Colonial Art

This museum, built in 1750, is located south of the Major Church. The opulent former palatial mansion of one of Cuba's most elite families, the Valle-Iznaga clan, who fled Cuba after the Revolution, became the property of the state in 1961. 90% of what you see inside, from furniture to paintings, is original. Though the family obviously kept an impressive collection of Limoges porcelain, French gilded mirrors, Italian marble tables, and Baccarat crystal chandeliers here, it wasn't their primary residence; the house was used mostly to host family members in transit, so the furnishings were rather eclectic. The three bedrooms are decorated in grand style, though, with handmade lace, embroidered sheets, and hand-painted glass. The mansion also has a hundred of colossal colonial doors. In 1967, it was opened as the Museum of Colonial Art of Sancti Spíritus.

Nuestra Señora de la Caridad Church

Built in 1717, the church was the center of the northern wing of the city. It was there where Serafín Sánchez, a local heroe, was baptized.

Plaza de Jesus

This park is located south of the colonial heart of the city. It changed its name ‘Plaza de Jesus’ by ‘Honorato Park’ in 1911. In this square, the Spanish Crown publicly hanged its foes. After that, the place converted a huge market for local vendors during the colonial days.

Plaza Nuestra Señora de la Caridad

Adjacent to Nuestra Señora de la Caridad Church is a park famed by its trade and social significance a long time ago. Since 1911, it’s known as ‘Maceo Park’ for Antonio Maceo, a cuban heroe of the War of Independence.

Plaza Serafín Sánchez

The main hub of life in Sancti Spíritus is Plaza Serafín Sánchez, a large public square that has a handful of fine colonial buildings in various states of disrepair mixed in with bland modern constructions. The square is named for Serafín Sánchez, a homegrown general in the War of Independence.

It certainly doesn't qualify as one of Cuba's most attractive plazas, but it is perennially busy with cars buzzing around and people meeting up. One of the most notable buildings on the square, on the corner of Solano and Máximo Gómez, is the Biblioteca Provincial Rubén Martínez, an early 20th century library that looks more like the local opera house. The main sights in town are a short walk south of here.

Puente Yayabo

Puente Yayabo, the bridge over the river Yayabo at the southern edge of old town, is a 19th-century take on a European Romanesque stone bridge. The bridge was always a dream for the local residents in the 18th century. But it was in 1817, when it was finally laid out. The bridge, considered the most distinctive symbol of the city, is also the only colonial stone bridge still extant in Cuba. Locals don't pause long enough to wonder whether a medieval-style bridge built in 1825, in a town not founded until well into the 16th century, looks odd or not; they bound over it at great speed, on bicycles, in horse-drawn wagons, and in 1950s Chevys on their way to and from the Colón residential district.

Teatro Principal

It’s said that the local inhabitants volunteered to bear the wood and other heavy materials for the building’s roof throughout. Its construction lasted 11 months. On July 15, 1839, it opened its doors to public, becoming a resplendent hall for the artistic events of the time.

University Hospital Camilo Cienfuegos

Opened on July 27, 1986, with the most state-of-art medical technology of that time, the center provides free health service for local residents. Right at its entrance there is stone image of revolutionary icon Camilo Cienfuegos, an important commander of the Revolution, along with Ernesto Guevara and Fidel Castro.