Santiago de Cuba City Attractions

Santiago de Cuba City - Santiago de Cuba - Other Cities and Attractions

Santiago de Cuba city has many tourist attractions among which:

Bacardi Rum Factory

This was one of Cuba’s very first museums, set up by Emilio Bacardi, and built by architect Carlos Segrera. Housed within the museum is a valuable collection covering the period between the Spanish conquest and the Wars of Independence (from Spain).

On the great entrance doorway there are some wonderful images of the goddess Minerva, while inside there is a large collection of weapons and mambi artifacts (pertaining to African rebel slaves). There is also a good exhibit of Cuban and European paintings as well as an archeological display that includes the only Egyptian mummy to be found in Cuba.

Castle of San Pedro de la Roca del Morro

Guarding the entrance to the Bahia de Santiago, this seemingly impregnable fortress is built atop a rocky promontory and entered across a formidable drawbridge. The medieval and Renaissance style structure, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is a warren of platforms, passageways, and cells spread across 5 levels and protected by 1.5 meter thick walls.

The origins of this fortress date back to 1590 when the Spanish King Philip II ordered its construction. Expanded in 1638 by the town governor Pedro de la Roca and designed by the Italian military engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli, it was called Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca del Morro. It was built to protect against pirate attacks (This it didn’t do so well, as pirates including Henry Morgan succeeded in ransacking the place).

The site, where the sun beats down unrelentingly, is slightly cooled off by the magnificent views of the bay and the Caribbean coastline stretching all the way to the Sierra Maestra.

Inside the fortress, built above a dry moat, is a sparse museum about the history of piracy and Santiago de Cuba. One room contains artifacts related to the 1898 Spanish-American War, principal naval battles of which were fought right in the bay of Santiago. 19 modern American ships sunk all 7 Spanish ships; ironically, the Spanish ship Cristobál Colón was the last to sink, thus closing the door on the history of Spanish colonialism in the Americas.

A daily ceremony, called the “Puesta del Sol”, takes place at sunset, recalling the 19th century importance of the fortress. Youngsters dressed as members of the Cuban rebel army, lower the flag and shoot off the ancient 1805 Spanish cannon to cries of “Viva Cuba Libre”.

The fortress was part of the defensive system of the important port town of Santiago de Cuba, and it was reconstructed and expanded several times until the end of the 19th century.

People from Santiago just call it El Morro and they know that, together with Castillo de La Estrella and the battery of La Socapa, it is part of the largest and most complete example of European Renaissance military engineering, applied to the conditions of the Caribbean by a colonial power.

Céspedes Park

Formerly the parade square, main square and Constitution square, this area is now called Céspedes Park and boasts a full-sized statue of Carlos Manuel Céspedes, the father of Cuba, on a marble pedestal. Surrounding it are many of Santiago's most important buildings, including the Cathedral, the Museum of Cuban History, the Palacio de Gobierno, and the former home of Diego Velázquez. Other places of interest include the Museo 26 de Julio, commemorating the Moncada attacks, the Museum of the Underground Movement, and the Bacardi Rum Factory. Take the time to stroll down charming streets such as Calle Heredia and Calle Padre Pico.

For almost 5 centuries now, the busy park, the cozy, shade place that Santiago residents regularly visit in search of protection against the hot weather, or for a chat with friends about local, national or world events, has been both witness and protagonist of the most important events in the city.

Young lovers come here to talk of the passion burning in them; parents and granparents to simply take their little one for a walk; and here and there, one can see groups of people, either sitting on the solid granite or wood benches, or standing in the middle of the park, engaged in heated discussions about the subjects Cubans like to talk about the most: baseball, politics, music, invitations or love.

Diego Velazquez House

This elegant, majestic 2 story building with a front that expends along half a block. On its lower floor, it is said, was the Crown’s Forge and Contract Office, while Diego Velazquez used the upper floor as his residence. Experts argue that in his backyard, which in the past led directly to the sea, there was a small fortress.

2 letters by Don Diego to his majesty Philip II as early as August 1519 mention the existence of this construction and that gold was being forged there. Further evidence of this activity is provided by the remains of a furnace of the type used in forgery found on the corner of the house.

Considered Cuba’s most ancient colonial building, today the house has a strong Moorish influence, with ashlars and richly decorated carved wood ceilings regarded as the city’s most elaborate. Its reconstruction and recovery as a site of cultural heritage was entrusted to professor Francisco Prat Piug. Work started in 1965, ending on November 30th, 1970. The house then became the Museum of Cuban Historic Ambience.

Loma de San Juan

This low-rise hill in the center of Reparto Vista Alegre, a leafy, upscale neighborhood, is where the decisive battle of the Spanish-Cuban-American War was fought. Teddy Roosevelt and his army of an estimated 6,000 Rough Riders stormed the hill and defeated the Spanish troops. At the entrance to the park is the Arbol de la Rendención (Tree of Surrender), where the Spanish forces capitulated to the Americans.

Something that still irks Cubans today, besides the commonly used name of the war that leaves them out, is that the Cubans were not even signatories to the surrender. While there are several plaques and monuments in the neatly manicured park that pay tribute to the North Americans who participated and died in the war, there are few dedicated to the Cuban fighters (though the Tomb of the Unknown Mambi, or independence fighter, can be found here).

Moncada Barracks

On July 26, 1953, this military barracks was the scene of a famous revolutionary episode against the Batista regime. Despite the failure of that particular military venture, the attack served to highlight the will of many young Cubans to struggle for their freedom.

The building has a plaque on the front wall in remembrance of an assault on the November 30, 1956, by the 26 of July Revolutionary Group.

Today, inside you’ll find the Museo de la Clandestinidad covering the period from the Spanish conquest to the guerilla movement of the 1959 revolution in the Sierra Maestra Mountains.

Museo del Carnaval

Santiago’s Carnival is the most famous in Cuba, and this small museum, in one the oldest houses on Calle Heredia, aims to give visitors some historical perspective. Carnival counts centuries of tradition; the first published reference to the celebration was in 1669.

It displays old costumes, black-and-white photos, huge masks and hand-painted and embroidered capes. Percussion instruments show how popular the celebration is: they include old car parts and simple wooden instruments. The final room displays a couple of the most recent winners of the costume contests.

Plaza de la Revolucion

This massive, raised platform monument to Antonio Maceo features a startling equestrian statue of the great patriot surrounded by 23 enormous iron machetes slicing towards the sky, like daggers in the sides of the colonial power.

Maceo, a Cuban of mixed blood, was called the “Bronze Titan” of the Cuban Independence Wars. Beneath the work is an eternal flame. An underground room houses a small and rather uninspiring museum dedicated to Maceo.

Santa Ifigenia Cemetery

Northwest of the city center, this sprawling cemetery, dating to 1868, is a small city of the dead, populated by elaborate marble tombs and sarcophagi, including several spectacular mausoleums (many of which are pre-1868, having been moved here from other cemeteries). By far the most famous is that of Jose Marti, a massive stone and marble circular structure built in 1951 (Marti died in 1895). In addition to Marti, the remains of Emilio Bacardi, Carlos Manual de Céspedes, Pedro Figueredo (author of the Cuban national anthem), and heroes of the Moncada rebel attack are buried here. However, the cemetery abound with a wealth of other fascinating tombs for families famous and unknown.

Tivoli

Tivoli is a charming, hilly neighborhood just south of Céspedes Park. It was once the most popular place to live in Santiago. Today it’s a relaxed place of steep streets, weathered and decrepit wooden houses, and a couple of attractions, but mostly it’s a good place to just walk around.

The famous Padre Pico steps are named for a Santiaguero priest who aided the city’s poor. Castro once roared fire and brimstone down on the Batista government here, but today you’ll find here chess and domino players who’ve set up their tables on the steps. When going up the steps, you’ll reach the Museum of the Underground Movement, which is housed in a handsome 18th century mansion on a hill, Loma del Intendente. Inside are exhibits related to the November 1956 attack on this former police headquarters, led by rebel leader and school teacher Frank País and his brother Josué, both executed by the army. Frank País’s funeral was massively attended by Santiagueros, a signal that the Revolution would have significant local support. Other photos and documents attest to the phenomenal years of tension, rumors and conflict that led to the rebels’ triumph.