• Submitted by: admin
• Arts and Culture
• Sancti Spiritus
• 11 / 17 / 2006

By Manuel Echevarria Gomez

The Cuban province of Sancti Spiritus exhibits a series of valuable monuments and sites, three of which are already considered world heritage.

On December 8th, 1988, the downtown historic area in Trinidad city as well as the Valley of the Sugar Mills and the Manaca-Iznaga Tower in this same village were recognized as such by UNESCO.

The urban center of Trinidad is one of the most remarkable architectonic places in Latin America with 279 houses built between the XVIII and XX centuries.

It is said that time was stopped in that village in the XIX century because old houses are still the same as they were.

The 43,5 meter-high Manaca-Iznaga Tower is considered the most beautiful one amongsimilar structures in the island. It was built by the Iznaga Borrel family and was used as a watch tower for the sugarcane fields.

The Valley of the Sugar Mills is a natural historic site in the central-south territory of the island. For 300 years, its 253 sq. kilometer area was turned into a typical sugar plantation that brought wealth to local landowners and a remarkable development to the village during the first half of the XIX century.

The intensive exploitation of the lands and the incapacity of landholders to foresee the subsequent economic failures made the village fall into ruin despite having the status of third important city in the island.

At present moment, the valley exhibits 73 archeological sites that offer lots of references about the sugar business during the colonial times.

The concept of national or local heritage is applied to every building, site or object with exceptional characteristics that deserve to be preserved. Sancti Spiritus province owns 23 of them.

The bridge over the Yayabo river in Sancti Spiritus city is considered as such since February 21st, 1995. This unique five-arch and still-in-use bridge was built in 1831 with the help of local villagers.

The mudejar style Mayor church, the oldest building in town (1680) is also in the list of local national heritage together with the historic area downtown the city; Caballete de Casas camp, where Che stayed while fighting in El Escambray mountains; Paso de Las Damas, the place where local heroe Major Serafin Sanchez Valdivia who fought the three independence wars was killed; and Las Villas North Front where Camilo Cienfuegos commanded the troops during the 1958 war.