Santiago de Cuba is the capital of Santiago de Cuba Province and the second-largest city in Cuba — a city of 445,000 on the southern coast of Oriente province, 860 km east of Havana across the full length of Cuba, at the foot of the Sierra Maestra mountains and on the shores of a deep landlocked bay. Santiago is the "Heroic City" of Cuba — the most politically charged city in Cuban history: Fidel Castro was born in Birán, 110 km north of Santiago; the first shot of the Cuban Revolution was fired at the Moncada Barracks in Santiago on July 26, 1953 (the failed attack that launched the revolutionary movement, gives the July 26 Movement its name, and provided the date that Cubans use to celebrate their revolution); the revolution culminated on January 1, 1959 when Fidel Castro gave his first speech as the victorious revolutionary commander from the balcony of the Santiago City Hall. Santiago is also the most African-influenced city in Cuba — the Santiago Carnival (the most important carnival in Cuba, held in late July as the city-wide celebration of the July 26 anniversary), the son music (Santiago is the birthplace of son — the Cuban musical genre that evolved into salsa, with the trova poets of the Casa de la Trova, and the groups that defined Cuban popular music for a century), the Santería religion (the Afro-Cuban syncretic religion of the Lucumí/Yoruba tradition), and the cuisine all reflect the strongest African heritage of any Cuban city. Santiago is UNESCO Creative City of Music (2015). The Castillo del Morro (the 17th-century Spanish fortress on the entrance to the Santiago bay, UNESCO World Heritage together with the Old Havana Morro castle) and the Basílica de El Cobre (the most important Catholic pilgrimage site in Cuba — the shrine of La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre, the patron saint of Cuba, whose statue was found floating in the bay in 1612) are the most visited sites near the city.
The Moncada Barracks (Cuartel Moncada — now the Abel Santamaría Museum and the Juan Vitalio Acebal School, on Avenida Moncada in Santiago) was the site of the July 26, 1953 attack by Fidel Castro and 160 rebels — the failed assault that launched the Cuban Revolution; the bullet holes from the attack (covered by Batista's forces with plaster, re-opened by the revolutionary government after 1959) are preserved in the facade as a memorial; the museum documents the attack, the capture and torture of survivors, and the subsequent trial where Castro delivered his famous "History will absolve me" speech; this is the most historically significant site in the Cuban revolutionary narrative.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideParque Céspedes (the central square of Santiago de Cuba, named for Carlos Manuel de Céspedes who freed his slaves and began the first Cuban independence war in 1868 — considered the "Father of the Cuban Nation") and the surrounding buildings: the Ayuntamiento (City Hall, 1950s, where Fidel Castro gave his first speech as revolutionary leader on January 1, 1959 from the balcony; the balcony is preserved with a photograph of the historic moment); the Casa Diego Velázquez (the house of the first Governor of Cuba, 1516 — the oldest house in Cuba, a museum of the colonial period with Mudéjar wooden ceilings); and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption (1920 reconstruction of the 1522 original).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Casa de la Trova (the House of Trova, Calle Heredia 208 — the legendary Santiago venue where the son music tradition has been performed live daily since 1968; the son (the musical genre that combines African rhythms with Spanish guitar and vocal harmony — the direct ancestor of salsa, bolero and much of Cuban popular music) was born in Santiago in the late 19th century in the hands of composers like Pepe Sánchez and Sindo Garay; the trova is the Cuban singer-songwriter tradition within son; the afternoon sessions (3pm-6pm) at the Casa de la Trova are the most authentic live Cuban music experience available to visitors; the musicians are elderly professional trovadores who have played this music all their lives.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideCalle Heredia (the most culturally dense street in Santiago — from the Casa de la Trova at one end to the Casa del Caribe at the other; the street has the Centro Cultural Africano Fernando Ortiz (the museum and performance space dedicated to Afro-Cuban culture, Santería ritual, and the cabildo carnival associations), the Casa de los Estudiantes (student music performances), and the street vendors of mojitos, cangrecitos and the street food of the Santiago evening; the Tumba Francesa houses on the street are the legacy of the Haitian immigrants who came to Santiago after the Haitian Revolution of 1804 and brought the French contradanse that fused with African rhythms to create new Cuban musical genres).
The Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca del Morro (commonly called El Morro, 1638-1700 — the fortress designed by Juan Bautista Antonelli the Younger on the promontory at the entrance to Santiago Bay; a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the Havana Morro; the fortress served to prevent pirate attacks on the Santiago Bay — the area was frequently attacked by English and French pirates in the 17th century; the museum inside covers the history of piracy in the Caribbean and the colonial fortification system; the view from the battlements over Santiago Bay and the Sierra Maestra foothills is the finest panorama accessible from the city).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Cementerio Santa Ifigenia (the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, 1868 — the national cemetery of Cuba, the most important cemetery in the country, equivalent to Paris's Père Lachaise for cultural significance; buried here are: José Martí (the national hero of Cuba, the poet-philosopher of Cuban independence, whose octagonal mausoleum has a rotating eternal flame that turns so the sun always illuminates his face); Fidel Castro (died November 2016; buried here December 4, 2016 in a ceremony attended by world leaders; the gravestone is a simple rough volcanic rock from the Sierra Maestra mountains where he fought the revolution — deliberately modest in contrast to the Marxist-Leninist hero cult); and dozens of other Cuban independence and revolutionary figures).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Basílica Nacional de Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre (the Basilica of the Virgin of Charity of El Cobre, 20 km west of Santiago — the most important Catholic pilgrimage site in Cuba; the image of the Virgin was found floating in Santiago Bay in 1612 by three fishermen (the Juanes — Juan de Hoyos, Juan Moreno, and Rodrigo de Hoyos) on a board inscribed "I am the Virgin of Charity"; declared the patron saint of Cuba by Pope Benedict XV in 1916; Ernest Hemingway donated his Nobel Prize medal to the sanctuary in 1954; pilgrims bring milagros (ex-voto offerings) and leave them in the room behind the Virgin — an extraordinary accumulation of medical prosthetics, wedding rings, football boots, fishing nets and other personal testimonies of answered prayers).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Santiago evening music circuit — the Santiago Carnival (if visiting late July: the largest and most authentic Cuban carnival, a week of street processions, conga drumming and dancing that makes Havana's carnival seem restrained by comparison; the conga santiaguera is the procession style unique to Santiago); La Casa del Son (Calle Heredia 178, a smaller and more intimate trova/son venue than the Casa de la Trova, often with better musicians in a less touristy setting); mojitos made with the Santiago Ron Añejo rum (the Santiago rum, produced since 1868 at the Ron Santiago distillery, is considered the finest aged rum in Cuba — deeper and woodier than Havana Club); and congri (the Santiago-style black beans and rice, the eastern Cuban version of arroz moro).
The Comandancia de La Plata (the secret guerrilla headquarters of Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra mountains, 130 km west of Santiago — the mountain command post where Castro directed the revolution from 1957-1958, now a museum in the forest; accessible via a 2-hour guided hike from the Villa Santo Domingo base camp; the site includes Castro's wooden cabin (with his personal effects, the printing press that produced Granma newspaper, the radio transmitter that broadcast Radio Rebelde to the Cuban people), the field hospital and the guards' quarters — all hidden in the cloud forest at 1,500 m altitude where Batista's army could not find them; requires advance reservation through the park office).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuidePico Turquino (1,974 m — the highest point in Cuba, in the Sierra Maestra National Park; a 2-day hike from the Las Cuevas trailhead on the south coast, or a 1-day very demanding hike from Villa Santo Domingo on the north slope; the summit has the bust of José Martí placed by Fidel's mother Lina Ruz in 1953; the cloud forest at the summit — orchids, tree ferns, Cuban endemic birds including the Cuban solitaire and the tocororo (the Cuban trogon, the national bird of Cuba) — is the finest natural environment accessible to trekkers in Cuba; requires advance booking with the park service).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe Ron Santiago distillery (the Factoría de Ron Santiago, in operation since 1868 — the oldest continuously operating rum distillery in Cuba, producing the Santiago de Cuba brand (the aged dark rum most appreciated by rum connoisseurs inside Cuba, as opposed to Havana Club which is better known internationally) through the traditional Cuban solera system (a fractional blending system where new spirit is always added to barrels of progressively older rum; the Ron Extra Añejo 12-year aged rum is the reference bottle) and the distillery tour explains the sugarcane-to-rum process from the Santiago refinery perspective.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideThe farewell Santiago evening — the view from the terrace bar of the Hotel Casa Granda (the 1914 neoclassical hotel on the Parque Céspedes that has been the social centre of Santiago since it opened; Graham Greene stayed here; the rooftop terrace gives the finest view of the Cathedral, the square and the Sierra Maestra silhouette in the south) at sunset with a Cuba Libre (the rum and Coca-Cola that was the drink of the independence war — the name "Free Cuba" from the toast), the evening trova session at the Casa de la Trova, and the sound of the distant drums that defines Santiago de Cuba evenings.