Diego Velazquez Museum, Santiago de Cuba. Cuba

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• Santo Tomas No. 612 e/ Aguilera y Heredia, Santiago de Cuba
• Destination: Santiago de Cuba
• Open: Daily
• Telephone: 5322) 652652
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Diego Velazquez Museum

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It is the mansion that belonged to Diego Velazquez (Spanish conqueror, first Governor from Cuba and founder of the first seven villages in the country), built between 1516 and 1530, even maintained in spite of the time and for the recent fires to which it has been threatened.
Museum House of Diego VelázquezMuseum Diego Velázquez

At the moment this old house works as Cuban Historical Colonial Environment's Museum, and the oldest construction in Cuba is considered, which was also House of the Indies and Foundry of the Spanish Crown.

The house presents architectural and ornamental elements of notable Moorish influences, as the artisans and the lattices Windows of its balconies, with a roof of carved cedar (in their majority it had to be reconstructed after a fire).

In the last floor was the rooms; the ground floor was the commercial part of the house, where Velazquez maintained his offices and in somewhere around this floor horse carriages were kept too.

The museum aspires to looks like the styles and the times of the colonial life, it seen through its building of the XVI and XIX centuries. It will find some French, British, Spaniards and Cuban magnificent furniture; Spanish ceramics; carved trunks; and French porcelain. Some dressing rooms have extraordinary designs and decorations, the proof of the wealth that the colonial bourgeoisie in Cuba of that time got.

Nowadays it has a second house out the back, blue and white painted. It has an attractive patio that is not part of the original house of Velazquez.

Mapa de Diego Velazquez Museum

Diego Velazquez Museum is located in Santiago de Cuba

It limits to the north with the province of Holguín; to the west with Granma; to the south with the Caribbean Sea, and to the east with the province of Guantánamo. The province covers a total area of 6 343 21 , Km². You can get here through Antonio Maceo International Airport, also by road from any other part of Cuba, or by sea ─in this last case, requesting the services from Punta Gorda Marina.

Two particular features characterizes Santiago de Cuba that make it exceptional: its hospitality, with people of happy and relaxed temperament and its rich historical-cultural wealth. Its Caribbean identity is evident in its popular music and in folklore manifestations. It depicts the title of Heroine City of the Republic of Cuba for the role carried out by its inhabitants in the revolutionary struggle during the decade of 1950. Privileged by its historical past, in Santiago de Cuba there are two of the Cuban places distinguished by UNESCO with the title of World Heritage: the San Pedro de la Roca Castle and the ruins of the first French coffee plantations in La Gran Piedra. The Santa Ifigenia cemetery , the 26 of July Historical Museum and the Siboney Farm, are places indissolubly linked to the history of Cuba.

Cayo Granma and Baconao Park (Biosphere Reserve) also part of the attractiveness of this region. As a tourist destination, Santiago de Cuba, combines excellent possibilities for the enjoyment of beaches, city and nature tourism for to the places of interest in those three scenarios.

For those who arrive in Santiago de Cuba, there are diverse lodging options in the city and in its surroundings, linked as much to the sea as to nature. With a variety of categories and levels of comfort, it will always be a guarantee for the visitors looking for harmony and soothing rest. There are other things, among so many, that make people from Santiago proud: to be the birthplace, par excellence, of almost all the musical genres of Cuba, a country where the music is soul and root; also, the carnivals that every month of July take place here, are the most spectacular in the country; as well as their rum, the well-known Fiestas del Fuego and the already traditional Festival of the Caribbean.

The region of Santiago de Cuba has the necessary infrastructure to encourage tourism of events and congresses; it also has in its mountainous and seafaring environment the conditions to develop nature and adventure tourism, trekking, nautical activities, and health tourism. But there is nothing better than walk its undulating and narrow streets loaded with history and music at the same time.

Review about Museums: Diego Velazquez Museum