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Holguin City

Capital of Holguin Province

The city of Mayabe Beer, not a colonial city like Camaguey or Trinidad, but worth visiting.

For the best view on the city...Loma de la Cruz, almost 300m high hill, put on your best walking shoes for walking 460 steps up this hill.

The North-South Urban Axis

The prevailing plain in the city of Holguin resembles an irregular shaped atar with the roads that lead to the four cardinal points. The urban area, though, has a well defined north-south axis. Its main streets today called Libertad and Maceo, two paralel streets where the burg sprouted out in the mid 18th century lies in the heart of the city whose population of 262.100 inhabitants ranks it fourth in Cuba.

Its Northern edge matches a considerable chunk of the hills that slope down into the plains of and the funnel rainfall into the Cauto River, Cuba's longest watercourse, some 50 km down to the south. At the base of these hills today called the Hill of the cross and formerly known as Bayado Park Libertad and Maceo streets start off and weave up to six different parks along the way.

Regardless of the fact that urban development plans for these first outdoors spaces harks back to colonial times, further housing and landscaping works in the burg gave Holguin the name of the City of Parks, a moniker it's widely known for today.

Its accessible proximity for the neighbors derived in the Cuba tradition of usually dropping in on these parks. Thus, the funny chat gatherings were born, get togethers that under the pretension of warding off the sweltering summertime heat turned these squared blocks into true means of communication and even makeshifts grounds for conspiracy buffs for the independence of Cuba and against the neocolonial dictatorships that took turns on the saddle later on.

No wonder these chat gatherings during the Spanish colonial rule, brimming with Cuban rebels and criticizers, were nicknamed gossiping grounds by the hispanic authorities.

To Do in Holguin

The Calixto Garcia Iñiguez Park

Around this monument lies the bustling section of Holguin's urban layout. In ratio of several hundred meters , visitors will find most of the town's retailers, its cultural life and part of the economic and administartive leadership of both the burg and province.

The Calixto Garcia Park stood for public tributes paid to Holguin's most celebrated hero of the three wars for the independence of Cuba. The monument was build in 1912 in the Hispanic Arms Square, right on the same spot where Queen Elizabeth II used to be venerated and the site of military drills during the colonial rule and since the foundation of the city. The block also served as meeting ground for Cuban separatics and for revolutionary youngsters committed to the social and anti dictatorial struggle in the mid 20th century.

Parques in Holguin:
Galaxico Garcia	Parque Jose Marti	Parque Manuel de Cespedes	Paquito Gonzalez
Julio Grave de Peralta	Parque Infantil Ruben Bravo	Plaza de la Marqueta

There's one bench with a history of its own. In this bench and its surrounding areas, right in the angle formed by Marti and Maceo streets, followers of Fidel Castro's insurgency trend, the defying and undefeated guerilla warfare leader who climed the Sierra Maestra mountain range (south of Holguin) in 1956, used to gather there. Quite a number of those bold revolutionaries from Holguin became brave combatants of the victorious Rebel Army; others were slain by agents of the Batista dictatorship, the last tyranny of the neocolonial era.

A giant chat gathering

Just a few door stands between the fine arts and handicraft galleries attached to the Cuban Fund of Cultural Assets (FCBC is the aconym in Spanish) and the jaw dropping museum and building of the La Periquera on the north side of the Calixto Garcia Park.

On the west side, the Cultural House and the gathering grounds of both professional and amateur artists are located, the place where old timed troubadours and pop singers, theater performers, dancers, the fanfare of literary workshops and attendees of other cultural events develop in their respetive fields.

Right in the same shadowy porches on this side, passerbys can hear Cuban melodies and tunes blaring out of the house of the Troubadours. Not far from there, the Alex Urquiola Provincial Library can be found, plus another art Galery a few blocks down the street. Sideling and across from the Calixto Garcia Park, visitors will happen on the Eddy Sunol Theater, the largest one in the province and host all major dance, musical and theatrical companies. Holguin's Puppet Theater is also nearby, as well as the amazing Plaza de la Marqueta.

A monument to a Hero

Flanked by Libertad and Maceo, two parallel streets and across from the San Isidoro Cathedral in the historic center, visitors will find a park where a monument to Brigadier General Julio Grave de Peralta y Zanas Bazan stands tall since 1916

Julio Grave de Peralta y Zanas Bazan soon became a hero of Cuba's first independence war, the man who conducted to siege of the makeshift barracks at La Periquera and a brave warrior. This always crowded public plaza, usually turned into a auditorium for the coveted perfotmances of the Municipal Concert Band, was built over the outer boundaries of the city's first ever cemetery once burials were no longer made inside the San Isidoro Cathedral. Nor far from here, the first houses in Holguin were built back in the 18th century. Today, some of those neclassical style house still prevail. The studios of Tele Cristal, the local TV station, are located near the beautiful Grave de Peralta Park.

Catedral de San Isidoro

Maceo #122
Holguin

Centro Provincial de Artes Plasticas Moncada

Maceo #180
Holguin

Fabricia de Organos

Carretera de Gibara #301
Holguin

Iglesia de San Jose
	Manduley #106 Holguin
Mausoleo
Plaza de la Revolución Museo Ave. XX Aniversario de la Victoria, Holguín
Museo del Deporte
Ave. Libertadores, Estadio Calixto García Holguín
Museo de Ciencias Naturales Carlos de la Torre
	Maceo No. 129, e/. Martí y Luz Caballero Holguín Stuffed animals
Museo Provincial “La Periquera”
	Frexes No. 190, e/. Libertad y Maceo Holguín
The building itself has been declared a national monument for it hosted historical events related to the independent struggle. The funny nickname (La Periquera) has been making the rounds locally since 1868 and brings back memories of the bold sieges undergone here by Spanish colonial troops stationed on the premises when freedom fighters led by Brigadier General Grave de Peralta launched a thrust on the eve of the beginning of Cuba's first independece war. The solid building, by the time recently finished a well to do businessman from Andalusia, had been seized by the Spanish military and turned into a fortress capable of putting up to Cuban assailments.But these actions soon showed up and led to a mocking spree on the part of the Cuban fighters who called Spaniards pericos (parrots) and egged them on to walk out of the building and engage in a face to face battle. The mockery used to by the Cubans was a way to scoff at the motley uniform the Spanish troops wore at the time, green with golden epaulets and red cuffs sporting yellow stripes, that pretty much reminded them of parrots, Cuban birds with feathers of similar colors.
Natal House of Calixto Garcia
	Miro 147 esq. Frexes. Holguín, Cuba Tel: 425610 Mon till Fri 9.00am a 5.00pm, Sat 9:00am a 1:00 pm
Calixto Garcia's birthplace. Miro street on the corner of Frexes St., in the historic center of town. In this house, the illustrious patriot was born on August 4, 1839. The house was declared a national monument and currently host the Memorial Museum featuring documents, pictures, arms and other relics, plus an information cebter entirely devoted to Cuba's 19th century independence wars.
One original feature: The book art
Its creation includes a primitive papermaking process out of recucled dregs and dry leaves, plus the addition of images, design and printout using printing presses from the 18th and 19th centuries. The edition never exceeds the 200 copies. This publishing house in Holguin, churning out these small works of art on literary topics, is one of its kind in Cuba.
Shadowy Porches
	The four streets that flow into Calixto Park stand for the most bustling and crowded part of the city's commercial hub. Stores and all kind of throb allong the non stop rows of roofed porches that provide good shadowy walkways for those eager to snoop and shop around.
These roofed commercial galleries that shelter passers by from the sweltring midday sun, also stand for excellent swatches of the local colonial architecture, commonplace in other cities across Cuba. The east side of town is enhanched by the streets that melt into the cobeted park and make long pathways of shadowy porches and tree groves where flows of people traipse up and down.
The Suñol Scene
Maceo, esq. a Libertad Holguin Widely known and recognised in Cuba and overseas, the Rodrigo Prats Lyrical Theatre of Holguin has made a name of itself with a magnificent cast, techniques and a repertoire of operas, operettas and Spanish musicals among other productions on different stages. Suñol has also hosted the Condanza dance company, one of Cuba's finest of its kind, dealing with classical, folkloric and modern ballet. Likewise, AlasBuenas Children's Theatrical Group has stood out with the presentation of literary works, while la Campana Folkloric Company stands for African-Cuban, countryside and popular roots of Holguin's culture. Holguin's Chamber Dance Company also shines in the limelight. This is recently created group that was put together on the basis of Cuba's celebrated ballet dancer Alicia Alonso.

Banco Financiero-Internacional
Manduley #167
Open Mo/Fri 8am to 3pm

Links & Sources:

• Cuban Cultural Holguin Portal
• Holguin / Guardelavaca Accommodation