SANTIAGO DE CUBA MUSEUMS

Emilio Bacardí Provincial Museum of Santiago de Cuba
This was the second museum founded in Cuba. Its original name was Museum and Library of Santiago de Cuba. At present it bears the name of an illustrious Santiaqo industrialist, Don Emilio Bacardi Moreau, who was the main benefactor of this institution, and an active participant in the purchase of numerous objects and collections now on display in its halls.

The archaeology hall displays several mummies from South America and Egypt. The Peruvian specimens from the old Paracas culture were spontaneously mummified by the combined effects of the extreme dryness of the air in the desert area where they were buried and the nitrous substances contained in the sands. The larger one belongs to a,male and the smaller to a female, both dating back more than a millennium.

The Egyptian mummy was brought over from Luxor, formerly Thebes, by Bacardi himself, who traveled there especially to get it. It is the body of a young woman and dates back to the 18th dynasty, when Thebes ruled supreme over ancient Egypt, two thousand years ago.

Another unique item is a torpedo made by hand by the rebels to blow up Spanish vessels in the mouth of the Cauto River during the War for Independence.

The museum's collection of Cuban colonial painting is one of the most important and complete in the country: portraits, taverns and landscapes by the most illustrious artists of the time.

Address: Calle Pio Rosado esq. Aguilera, Santiago de Cuba.
Open: Tuesday to Saturday: 09:00 to 18:00. Sundays: 09:00 to 13:00. Closed Mondays.

Isabelica Museum
The museum is located in the manor house of one of the French coffee plantations established at La Gran Piedra, east of Santiago de Cuba. These plantations mushroomed as a result of the immigration of French landowners from Haiti, who fostered coffee growing with a technique that made the most of natural irrigation, favored by abundant rainfall.

The museum is a two-story building, with the ground floor holding an exhibit of farming implements and archaeological items found in the area, related to the French settlements in the past cetntury. The top floor is the owner's home, appointed with the furniture of the times.

La Isabelica enjoys incredible weather, as well as a striking view of the Caribbean among the peaks of the Sierra Maestra range.

Address: Carretera de La Gran Piedra, km 14, Santiago de Cuba.
Open: Tuesday to Saturday: 09:00 to 17:00. Sundays:.09:00 to 13:00. Closed Mondays.

Antonio Maceo´s Birthplace
Built between 1800 and 1830 in the fashion of the time in Santiago (walls made of intertwined flexible twigs covered with lime and sand), this modest house was the birthplace, on June 14, 1845, of Antonio Maceo y Grajales. Maceo is considered to be one of Cuba's greatest military commanders during the 1868 and 1895 wars for independence.

The two most memorable episodes of his military life were the Baragua Protest, when he refused to surrender his weapons at the end of the Ten Years'War, and the East-to-West invasion he carried out 17 years later when a new war broke out in 1895. The invasion is considered one of the
most brilliant military feats of the 19th century. When the final battle with the Spanish enemy was imminent, Maceo was killed in combat on December 7,1895. He was then 51 and had devoted 32 years of his life to the independence of Cuba. He had waged 900 combats, received 26 bullet wounds and had lost his father and several brothers in the war.

Antonio Maceo's birthplace is now a museum containing momentos of his heroic deeds.

Address: Calle Los Maceo no. 207 entre Corona y Rastro, Santiago de Cuba.
Open: Monday to Saturday: 08:00 to 18:30. Closed Sundays.

Museum of Historical Cuban Ambiance
There is documentary evidence that attests to the fact that the mansion that hosts the museum is the oldest in Cuba, built during the early decades of the 16th century. It is claimed to have originally been the dwelling of the Adelantado Don Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, who lived on the top floor, while the ground floor was occupied by the Contracting House and the smeltery.

An important clue in this connection was the discovery, during the last restoration, of the furnace where the gold was turned into ingots and of numerous architectural elements which prove the antiquity of the building. The museum shows the various stages of Cuban material culture, mainly represented by architecture, furniture and decorative objects -- either local or imported -- placed in the halls in the fashion of the time.

During the 16th century, homes became more complex and luxurious and they reached their maximum splendor in the late 18th and all of the 19th century, when the excellence of Cuba's material culture becomes evident in the rich joinery work oforiginal design and decoration.

This cultural center is actively promoting and supporting various research projects related to its main theme.

Address: Calle Felix Pena no. 612, Santiago de Cuba.
Open: Monday to Saturday: 08:00 to 18:00. Sundays:09:00 to 13:00.

Piracy Museum
In the 16th century, and for hundreds of years after that, the Caribbean sea was the Mare Nostrum of piracy. A numbrer of countries that were enemies of Spain, especially France and England, coveted the wealth the Spaniards were obtaining from their American colonies and authorized their seamen to attack ships under the Spanish flag and loot them.

The corsairs, protected by the laws of privateering passed by their rulers, attacked and massacred not only the crews of the Spanish galleons but also pounced upon cities and towns, robbed them and laid them waste. Aware of the benefits accruing to their governments from the
booties they took, the corsairs began to pocket a share of the riches and thus became pirates.

The pirates grouped and formed fleets that roamed the Caribbean Sea, mainly around Cuba. The record of atrocities, looting and violence committed by the pirates at the point of a sword or grappling hooks is the central theme of the Piracy Museum, lodged in the Morro Castle of Santiago de Cuba.

This fortress, erected on a cliff at the entrance of the bay in the 17th century, was built precisely to defend the city from the filibusters. The museum shows, among other things, that since 1538, Santiago de Cuba was the victim of successive piratical attacks for twenty-four consecutive years. One of the most memorable was launched by Jacques de Sores, who attacked the city with four ships while the dwellers were sleeping. The pirates kidnaped the most illustrious citizens and asked
for 80 thousand gold pieces as ransom. Sores remained in the town for 30 days. The townspeople realized the precarious situation of their city and decided to move to Bayamo, further inland. The Jolly Roger continued to wave over the Caribbean until the 1830s.

Address: Castillo del Morro, Santiago de Cuba.
Open: Tuesday to Sunday: 09:00 to 1 8:00. Closed Mondays.

Siboney Farm
The Siboney Farm is located on the outskirts of Santiago de Cuba; it was chosen as the staging point by the members of the commando that was to attack the Moncada Garrison on July 26, 1953.

Some one hundred men gathered in the house the night before the attack. Most did not know what the objective was to be since they would be briefed at the last minute. During the early hours of the 26th of July, Castro called all the participants to a meeting and explained to them the importance of the action they would carry out and the risk they would be running. He stressed that participation was voluntary and released those who did not wish to take part from all responsibility. Most agreed to go ahead with the plan.

"We will be free men or martyrs" were Castro's last words before setting out for the Moncada.

Today the farm is a museum which keeps objects and documentary evidence of these events. Siboney Farm was declared a National Monument.

Address: Carretera de Siboney, km 13.5, Santiago de Cuba.
Open: Tuesday to Sunday: 09:00 to 17:00. Closed Mondays.

26th of July Historical Museum
The former Moncada Garrison, attacked by Castro and a group of revolutionaries on July 26, 1953, was turned into the 26th of July School City in 1959. Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the attack against the Garrison, a museum was opened in one of its buildings. The storming of the Moncada was the birth of the insurrection movement that culminated with the revolutionary victory of January 1st 1959.

Taking advantage of the popular Santiago carnival festivities to go unnoticed, the cars driven by the assailants entered the Garrison through gate 3. Almost immediately, generalized shooting annulled the surprise factor. supported by snipers stationed in neighboring buildings, the revolutionaries tried to carry out their mission: to seize the weapons and give them to the people to begin the uprising. In the end, numerical and material superiority tilted the scales in favor of the military and the revolutionaries had to withdraw.

The army then launched a manhunt and captured and murdered most of the attackers. Castro's life was saved thanks to the honorable stance of a sergeant who refused to carry out the order of killing him.

Open: Monday to Satueday: 08:00 to 18:00. Sundays: 08:00 to 12:00.