Cuba is obsessed with scale city models, and Santiago, with this incredibly detailed maqueta, is no exception. Interesting historical and architectural information is displayed on illustrated wall panels and you can climb up to a mezzanine gallery for a true vulture's-eye view. For more views, gravitate to the cafe/terrace at the back.
Maqueta de la Ciudad
Santiago de Cuba
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca del Morro
4.4 MILES
A Unesco World Heritage site since 1997, the San Pedro fort sits impregnably atop a 60m-high promontory at the entrance to Santiago harbor, 10km southwest…
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0.84 MILES
The museum inside the Cuartel Moncada is the best in town and one of the best in Cuba. Sometimes gory exhibits catalogue the details of the 1953 attack by…
1.23 MILES
Nestled peacefully on the city's western extremity, the Cementerio Santa Ifigenia is second only to Havana's Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón in its importance…
Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
0.09 MILES
Santiago's most important church is stunning both inside and out. There has been a cathedral on this site since the city's inception in the 1520s, though…
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0.85 MILES
Santiago's famous Moncada Barracks, a crenelated art deco building completed in 1938, is now synonymous with one of history's greatest failed putsches…
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Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano
0.11 MILES
The oldest house still standing in Cuba, this arresting early colonial abode dating from 1522 was the official residence of the island's first governor,…
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0.15 MILES
This gorgeous yellow colonial-style building houses a museum detailing the underground struggle against Batista in the 1950s. It's a fascinating, if…
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13.87 MILES
The hub of the Unesco World Heritage site bestowed in 2000 upon the First Coffee Plantations in the Southeast of Cuba is this impressive two-story stone…
Nearby Santiago de Cuba attractions
0.03 MILES
The alfresco Balcón de Velázquez is the site of an old Spanish fort. It offers ethereal views over the terracotta-tiled roofs of the Tivolí neighborhood…
0.08 MILES
The Museo Arquidiocesano houses a dullish collection of furniture, liturgical objects and paintings including the Ecce Homo, believed to be Cuba’s oldest…
3. Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
0.09 MILES
Santiago's most important church is stunning both inside and out. There has been a cathedral on this site since the city's inception in the 1520s, though…
0.09 MILES
The picturesque Padre Pico steps are almost 100 years old and still hosting rousing games of dominoes; the steps lead to the Tivolí neighborhood.
0.11 MILES
Archetype for romantic Cuban street life, Parque Céspedes is a throbbing kaleidoscope of walking, talking, hustling, flirting, guitar-strumming humanity…
6. Museo de Ambiente Histórico Cubano
0.11 MILES
The oldest house still standing in Cuba, this arresting early colonial abode dating from 1522 was the official residence of the island's first governor,…
7. Casa de la Cultura Miguel Matamoros
0.12 MILES
The Casa de la Cultura Miguel Matamoros, on Parque Céspedes' eastern aspect, is the former San Carlos Club, a social center for wealthy santiagüeros until…
0.13 MILES
The neoclassical Ayuntamiento was erected in the 1950s using a design from 1783 and was once the site of Hernán Cortés’ mayoral office. Fidel Castro…