The home of "Rum and Revolution", Santiago de Cuba is one of the most interesting and beautiful regions in the country. This cosmopolitan city, the second largest in Cuba, has an irresistible charm. It is teaming with historical and cultural sites of interest, with it's dozen or so museums, broad tree-lined boulevards, intimate squares, and its Spanish colonial style buildings. Castro's Revolution began here on July 26, 1958.

There are many attractions just a short drive from the city: to the west looms the Sierra Maestra mountains, the San Pedro do la Roca Castle is located at the entrance to Santiago Bay, Parque Bacanoa, and Gran Piedra National Park, are just some of the places that should not be missed.

Its transcendental historic and cultural values and the well-known hospitality of its people, of happy and noisy character, are two of the characteristics of that distinguish the southeastern province of Santiago de Cuba, considered the authentic capital of the Caribbean because of its geographic position and ethnic origins.

The foundation of its original urban center "located next to a large pocket bay, well protected and surrounded by mountains" dates back to 1514. During its ulterior process of expansion, the city adapted perfectly well to the irregularity of the surface of the region.

Initially, the mining of gold and copper and the cultivation of coffee (introduced after the inflow of French immigrants) were, in the colonial times, the main economic activities of the a city, sieged by pirates, corsairs and the enemies of the Spanish metropolis; which required intense fortification work. The most important of its forts, Castillo de San Pedro de la Roca, was declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 1997.

People from Santiago just call it El Morro and they know that, together with Castillo de La Estrella and the battery of La Socapa, it is part of the largest and most complete example of European Renaissance military engineering, applied to the conditions of the Caribbean by a colonial power.

Santiago de Cuba grew under the protection of this kind of forts. Its historic center keeps in its splendor valuable examples of colonial architecture (of strong Andalusian and Moorish tradition) with the outstanding house of Diego Velázquez, considered the oldest one in the island, and the Metropolitan Cathedral, both of them located very close to the most well known arteries of the city: the streets of Enramada and Padre Pico.

Céspedes Park is, without a doubt, the heart of the only Hero City of the Republic of Cuba, scenario on July 26 of 1953 of the attack on the Moncada Garrison, action that set the start of the last stage of the national liberation war. This is also the place where the remains of the National Hero, José Martí, lay in an impressive funeral monument of the Cemetery of Santa Ifigenia.