Page 236 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Cuba

234  CUBA REGION B Y REGION

Beyond Santiago’s Historic Centre The funerary monuments them-
selves are fascinating. The Neo-
Calle Saco (also known as Enramada), Santiago’s main Classical tombs nearest the
commercial street, links the heart of the old city with the entrance are the oldest, followed
port. After passing through a working-class quarter, by the eclectic and then
with early 20th-century wooden houses, the street ends Modernist tombs. The Rationalist
tombs built from the mid-20th
at Paseo Marítimo. Laid out in the colonial era as a seafront century on include Martí’s large
promenade for the city’s high society, this broad street retains octagonal mausoleum.
echoes of its former beauty and still has its original 1840
paving, stretching out along the port, where cruisers and E Museo 26 de Julio –
yachts are moored. An alternative route to explore is to go Cuartel Moncada
in the opposite direction, east of the centre, where there are Calle General Portuondo (Trinidad), e/
Moncada y Ave de los Libertadores.
important historic sites, including the Moncada barracks. Tel (22) 661 157. Open 9am–12:30pm
Mon & Sun, 9am–4:30pm Tue–Sat.
E Casa Natal de Antonio & 8 Note: fee for photography
Maceo may apply.
Calle Los Maceo 207, e/ Corona y On 26 July 1953, at the height
Rastro. Tel (22) 623 750. Open 9am– of the Carnival festivities, Fidel
2pm Mon, 9am–5pm Tue–Sat. & 8 Castro led about 100 rebels in an
Note: fee for photography may apply. attack on the Moncada barracks
The house where this great (see p52). Capturing Moncada,
general was born on 14 June the second largest garrison in
1845 (he died near Havana Cuba, built in the 19th century,
on 7 December 1896; see p48) would have meant securing a
is a modest place. Visitors large stock of weapons and thus
can see some of the hero’s triggering a general revolt. Abel
personal belongings and family Santamaría was to attack the
photographs, including one of The mausoleum of José Martí in the Saturnino Lora hospital, a
his brother José, who was also a Santa Ifigenia Cemetery strategic site on a promontory
general, and one of his mother, overlooking the barracks, and
Mariana Grajales. were reserved for those of Raúl Castro was to capture the
higher social status. A visit to law courts building. This bold
P Cementerio de Santa the Santa Ifigenia cemetery attempt failed, but it did succeed
Ifigenia evokes two centuries of Cuban in increasing public awareness
Avenida Crombet. Tel (22) 632 723. history, past the tombs of such of the activity of the young
Open 7am–6pm daily. & 8 illustrious 19th-century figures revolutionaries. Eight of them
This monumental cemetery as José Martí, Carlos Manuel died during the attack, while 55
(1868) is the second most de Céspedes, Emilio Bacardí were taken prisoner; some were
important in Cuba after the and the mother of Antonio tortured and executed.
Colón cemetery in Havana Maceo, as well as the Since January 1959 the
(see pp108–9). It was originally 20th-century revolutionaries barracks, which still bears bullet
laid out with a Latin cross plan of the Movimiento 26 de Julio holes, has housed the Ciudad
and divided into courtyards, such as Frank País, who was Escolar 26 de Julio school. Part of
the most important of which killed in 1957 (see p54). the building houses the Museo

The impressive façade of the former Moncada army barracks, now a school and museum
For hotels and restaurants in this region see pp262–3 and p275

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