Santiago de Cuba, Caribbean Capital

The also known as "Hero City" is the second largest city of Cuba, the largest of the Antilles.Capital city of the homonymous province and county seat, is located in the southern portion of the province of Santiago de Cuba and at the East of the Bay.
 

It is among the first seven villages founded by Diego Velázquez, during the conquest and colonization, since 1515 it became the capital of the island for its proximity to the Viceroyalty and Audience of Santo Domingo and its wide, sheltered port for the shipment of goods and expeditions for the conquest of what would be the Spanish Empire.

The first economic activity was the mining of gold, but the exhaustion of this; there were other means of subsistence and exploitation of copper mines in Santiago del Prado, now town of El Cobre, and livestock.

Santiago also shows traces of French immigrants of the last century, one of them remained in the mountains growing coffee, the Tivolí theater and even the sound of the piano, as the saga say that in these parts was where it was first heard the sound of this instrument .

The layout of the city is irregularly shaped, with steep streets and alleys to the oldest areas.

On its streets live high architectural buildings like the Cathedral, the Elvira Cape Library, the Emilio Bacardi Moreau Museum, the Moncada Barracks, place chosen by Fidel Castro and a group of young revolutionaries who departed from the Siboney Farm on July 26, 1953 to mark the start of the insurrection against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

With more than a century, the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in the city of Santiago de Cuba, capital of the province of the same name, keep the history of heroes, illustrious and modest men and women and anonymous personalities who lived here.

Complet the environment, the prestigious Universidad de Oriente, and at only 12 kilometers from the city center, the El Cobre sanctuary, a place of pilgrimage and offerings to the Virgin of Charity, patroness of the island.

The economic development that grew out of the hand of mining and later became agriculture and livestock is currently showing a diversified development of the industry and associated services, construction, tourism, scientific.