26 de Julio Historic Monument, Santiago de Cuba. Cuba
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- Calle Trinidad y Ave. Moncada. Santiago de Cuba
- Daily
- (5322) 620157
- Destination: Santiago de Cuba
Rating 26 de Julio Historic Monument
The assault to the Moncada Barracks, in 1953 were the headquarters of the regiment "Antonio Maceo" in the city of Santiago de Cuba, capital of the eastern county. For its importance, Moncada was the second military fort of the country, occupied by about a thousand men under the command of Fulgencio Batista.
March 10 1952, Fulgencio Batista gave a coup d'etat allied with the yankee imperialism that sank the island in a deep prostration, an awful delay, a big political crisis, and it established a bloody dictatorship.
A group of young of Orthodox Party having conscience of the graveness in that this man had sunk to the country and of the absence of a political force able to face and to overthrow to the tyranny, led by Fidel Castro, it was given to the task of preparing, this assault, action that was carried out July 26 1953 and it marked the beginning of the last stage of the fight of the town for their total liberation.
Moncada AssaultMoncada Assault
The assault to the Moncada Barracks marked rule in the definition of the revolutionary victory in what concerns to independece war, since soon after the people known the objectives and they were called to be incorporated to the fight.
The plan was elaborated in secret at all. Besides Fidel Castro, it were knew only for two partners of this movement and the responsible one in Santiago de Cuba.
They had two Leadership Committees: one military, to the Fidel's control, and another civilian, directed by Abel Santamaría. Also, it was about a selective organization. For orientations of Fidel, their members were recruited between the classes and sectors humble of the population: workers, peasants, employees, modest professionals. They were preferably young people, unaware to all personal ambition, not infected for bad habits of the traditional politics.
The weapons, uniforms and all necessary resources for the fight were obtained without appealing to the help of wealthy people neither of political corrupt. Their acquisition was possible fundamentally for the will and the personal sacrifice of the own combatants.
The date chosen for the action was July 26 because this day was Sunday of carnival, traditionally party which the people of different points of the island attend, reason why the presence of young of other counties would go unnoticed.
In the dawn of that day, 135 combatants, dresses with uniforms of the Army and led by Fidel, check out the attack plan. They were organized in three groups, the first one with Fidel, it would attack the quarter. The other two groups led by Abel Santamaría (second officer in command of the movement) and Raúl Castro, would take two contiguous important buildings: the Civil Hospital and The Court House.
When everything was ready, it was given reading to the "Manifesto del Moncada", wrote by the young poet Raúl Gómez García under Fidel orientation.
The surprise, main factor of the success, it wasn’t achieved. The fight was begun outside of the El Cuartel Moncada and it was prolonged in a combat of positions. The rebels has a confrontation with a superior enemy in weapons and men, retrenched inside that strength.
Understanding that to continue the fight under those conditions was a massive suicide, Fidel ordered the retreat.
Immediately after these facts, the dictatorship reacted with a brutal repression, where Batista transformed to El Cuartel Móncada into a torture and death workroom, and some unworthy men transformed the military uniform into butchers' aprons to execute each participants of so transcendental act.
After the victory of the revolution El Cuartel Moncada was transformed into a school city that it took the name of School "Ciudad Escolar 26 de Julio" and a space of her was devoted to Museum on the facts related with the assault.
26 de Julio Historic Monument Map
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26 de Julio Historic Monument 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.
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Moncada
On July 26, 1953, this military garrison was the scene of a famous revolutionary action against the tyrannical Batista regime. Despite its failure, the attack sparked the will of many young Cubans to struggle for their freedom. A plaque on the front wall commemorates another daring assault carried out on the November 30, 1956, by the 26 of July Revolutionary Movement. The former garrison is now a museum that covers the period from the Spanish conquest to the guerrilla movement in the Sierra Maestra Mountains.
The Moncada Barracks
The Moncada Barracks are an especially famous landmark in Santiago de Cuba and named after renowned Cuban War of Independence general, Guillermo Moncada. Dating back to the late 1930s and boasting fortress-like crenelations, the original barracks were built here by the Spanish in the middle of the 19th century. Following the Revolution, the Cuartel Moncada was converted into a school, and is today something of a museum, with artefacts relating to its colourful past.
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