City Tour "CIENFUEGOS PANORAMIC"

City Tour "CIENFUEGOS PANORAMIC"

The city of Cienfuegos, founded in 1819, is the only one in Cuba founded by the French and located in a wonderful bay protected by the Jagua Castle. The French lineage of Cienfuegos gives it a truly distinctive touch: perfect symmetry in its urban layout, neoclassical buildings and a long pedestrian promenade. Declared by UNESCO Cultural Heritage of Humanity, it has innumerable historical, cultural and patrimonial sites which give the visitor a unique opportunity to get to know the so-called PEARL OF THE SOUTH, its inhabitants, culture, legends and history.

Itinerary

• Departure from the Agency.
• Specialized guide service available.
• Visit to the area known as La Punta, in Punta Gorda, which in the year 2000, was proclaimed a National Monument. It is located at the southern end of the city and the aborigines called it Tureira (for them "bright, shiny or beautiful thing"). That tongue of land since the second half of the 19th century became a summer resort, although prestigious families of the time also resided there. With a unique road access, due to the physical shape of the territory, it is characterized and stands out for the formal typology of the buildings, of wide North American and Caribbean influence, and for the vernacular Cuban seal of its constructions, of one and two levels, in wood.
• Visit to the Palacio del Valle. Emblematic site of the city. Built its first stage in 1895 by the Catalan Celestino Cazes, the lavish mansion stood out for its aesthetic attributes. In 1917 the growth of the building to the north ended, under the ownership of Acisclo del Valle Blanco. It was designed by the Cienfuegos architect Pablo Donato Carbonell and its construction was directed by the Italian civil engineer Alfredo Colli-Fanconetti. French, Italian, Arab and Cuban craftsmen worked on the facilities. Materials such as marble, alabaster, bronze, glass and ceramics were imported from Spain, Italy and the United States, and Cuban precious woods were used. The building has three levels and a basement, and is topped by three towers: a Roman Gothic tower, an Indian tower and a third, an Arab-style minaret, which have been interpreted as symbols of love, religion and strength. It is emblematic of the region for its architectural, historical and environmental features, and for its interrelationship with the bay and the Hotel Jagua. Local Monument since January 30, 1990.
• Entrance to the Tomás Terry Theater. National monument located in the historical urban center of the city of Cienfuegos, in front of Martí Park. Its typology corresponds to that of the so-called "Italian-style coliseum", which takes place in a horseshoe-shaped room, where the audience is located on four levels, but always in frontal relation to the show offered on stage. The Tomás Terry Theater is one of the most elegant and eclectic buildings in the city of Cienfuegos, which together with the similar Sauto Theater (in Matanzas, and the La Caridad Theater (in Santa Clara), make up the trilogy of theaters that existed in Cuba in the 19th century.
• Tour of the historic center of the city with visits to Martí Park and San Fernando Boulevard.

Parque Martí: On April 22, 1819, Don Luis de Clouet and a group of Frenchmen founded the Fernandina de Jagua colony. The point of reference for the urban layout was a majagua existing in the center of the savannah, according to a granite rose window placed in the park. Before being named in 1905 José Martí Park was Plaza de Armas, Plaza de Ramírez, Plaza de Recreo and Plaza de la Independencia. It is the urban and architectural foundation that typifies the environment of Cienfuegos, in which neoclassicism and eclecticism denote the status of the generation that preceded them. Its dimensions are larger than those of others in the country, it is a large space of almost 2 hectares, twice the size established in the laws of the Indies, which is an exceptional fact with respect to the cities founded in the nineteenth century. It was one of the most important scenes of the revolutionary events of September 5, 1957. In its surroundings there are relevant constructions in the cultural, administrative and religious order.

San Fernando Boulevard: San Fernando Boulevard at Avenida 54, is one of the main commercial arteries of the city. It owes its name to King Ferdinand VII, who was the monarch during the founding of the colony. It is one of the first roads of the time and little by little it was legitimized in its commercial function. At the same time it serves as a link between the José Martí Park (former Plaza de Armas) with the Paseo del Prado (former Independence Avenue) and is an ideal space for interaction with the culture of Cienfuegos in each of the store-houses built from the nineteenth to the twentieth century.