Santiago de Cuba travel guide
Many visitors prefer Cuba’s second city (population 405,000) to the capital. Santiago de Cuba (880km/546 miles southeast of Havana) is one of the oldest cities, with a wealth of colonial buildings. Unfailingly vibrant and seductive, it exudes a feel all its own. Enclosed by the Sierra Maestra mountains, Santiago can also be wickedly hot. Santiagueros negotiate their hilly streets by keeping to the shady sides, and they relax on overhanging balconies.
Santiago is Cuba’s melting pot, with a friendly population of predominantly mulatto people: descendants of Spanish, French from Haiti, Jamaicans and huge numbers of African slaves. Afro-Cuban traditions remain strong, reflected in carnaval, which is still Cuba’s best, and in music (walk down any street and a cacophony of sounds will emanate everywhere).
Founded in 1514, Santiago was the island’s capital until 1553. It is regarded as a ‘heroic city’ (ciudad héroe), and locals are proud of the city’s rebellious past. Seminal events brought it centre-stage again during the 1950s, when it assumed a major role in the revolutionary struggle. The attack on Batista’s forces at the Moncada Barracks in 1953 thrust Fidel Castro into the national limelight, and it was in Santiago’s main square that he first declared victory, on 1 January 1959.
Top places to visit in Santiago de Cuba
Parque Céspedes
The most atmospheric part of the city is Old Santiago. Castro delivered his victory speech in the heart of the old town, from the balcony of city hall on Parque Céspedes. The attractive square is a genteel place with tall trees, gas lanterns and iron benches. Old Santiago’s grid of streets unfolds here, a few blocks inland from the heavily industrialized harbor. Parque Céspedes is dominated by its twin-towered cathedral. A basilica was built on this spot in 1528, but what you see was rebuilt in the early 19th century after a series of earthquakes and fires.
Casa de Diego Velázquez
Noticeable for its black-slatted balconies, this building was built in 1516 as the residence of the founder of Cuba’s original seven villas (towns). The oldest house in Cuba and one of the oldest in the Americas, it is in remarkable condition. Housing the Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano, its rooms overflow with period furniture and carved woodwork and encircle two lovely courtyards. Across the square is the elegant Hotel Casa Granda, which opened in 1914 and hosted many celebrity guests and gangsters before the Revolution. Its terrace bar on the fifth floor affords excellent views of the cathedral towers and the city beyond.
Casa de la Trova
East from the square, Calle Heredia is the epicentre of Santiago culture and tourism. The city’s famous Casa de la Trova (music hall), which has hosted nearly all legendary Cuban musicians, is the centrepiece of both. Starting in mid morning, a succession of groups perform every style of Cuban music here, from son and guarachas to boleros and salsa. The intimate open-air space inside is the place to be in the evenings; at night the main groups play upstairs. Calle Heredia is lined by day with artisans and souvenir sellers.
Museo Provincial Emilio Bacardí
The Museo Provincial Emilio Bacardí has an excellent collection of Cuban art, as well as some European works, some items from the wars of independence and an archaeological hall that features a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy, two Peruvian skeletons and a shrunken head. The museum, in a grandiose neo classical building on a beguiling little street, is named for its benefactor and the town’s former mayor, whose family founded the Bacardí rum empire.
Plaza Dolores
One of Santiago’s most delightful people-watching spots is Plaza Dolores, a shady plaza lined with colonial-era homes (several now house tourist restaurants). Avenida José A. Saco (more commonly known as Enramada) is Santiago’s main shopping thoroughfare. Its faded 1950s neon signs and ostentatious buildings recall more prosperous times. Cobbled Calle Bartolomé Masó (also known as San Basilio), just behind Heredia and the cathedral, is a delightful street that leads down to the picturesque Tivolí district.
Tivolí
In Tivolí you’ll find the famous Padre Pico steps, 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 more pacific chess and domino players who have set up all-hours tables on the steps. Take the steps up to the Museo de la Lucha Clandestina, the Museum of the Clandestine Struggle. This excellent museum, in one of the city’s finest colonial houses, focuses on the activities of the resistance movement under local martyr Frank País. Residents of Santiago were instrumental in supporting the Revolution, as were peasants in the Sierra Maestra. From the museum’s balcony, there are tremendous views of Santiago and the bay (and, unfortunately, of plumes of pollution rising up from factories).
