Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, Santiago de Cuba. Cuba

• Start based on 12 reviews
• Santiago de Cuba
• Destination: Santiago de Cuba
• Open: Daily
• Telephone:
• Write a review

Santa Ifigenia Cemetery

Your experience is very valuable for other travelers.

You must rate.

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The cemetery of Santa Ifigenia, place where lies the rest of the National Hero from Cuba, our Apostle José Martí, besides illustrious children of Santiago de Cuba. It was founded in February of 1868, to the northwest of the city of Santiago de Cuba.  

This famous cemetery owes its name to the Ethiopian Virgin with equal names, baptized by the Apostle San Mateo, and canonized by her miracles. The idea arises because from the XVI century and until principles of the XIX century, the great majority of the funerals took place fundamentally in the patios of the churches, or inside the same ones when it was about ecclesiastical, military, political or social important personalities.

The nearness of the burials to the city and the inhabitants was the favorable causes for the propagation of illnesses. At the end of the XIX century one of the King's devoted appeared where he ordered the construction of cemeteries far from the city and the urban centers.

In 1826 the first cemetery of the city of Santiago de Cuba it’s inaugurated, well-known as Cemetery of Santa Ana, because of its proximity to the church of the same name. The life of this cemetery was short due by the quick growth of the population, and with the purpose of avoiding epidemics like the cholera and the yellow fever that whipped in that time, it decided to build other, inaugurated officially in 1868 as General Cemetery of Santa Ifigenia.

It was in April 22 of that same year when it took place the first funerals, although there were gravestone previous to 1868, fact that certify transfers of the old cemetery. Panteón Emilio Bacardi, Cementerio Santa IfigeniaTumba de Tomás Estrada Palma, Cementerio Santa Ifigenia

The Cemetery constitutes a reminder of the last and present history of Cuba, because there lies some of the personalities’ rest more valiant and illustrate of the independence wars, as well as some outstanding figures of the art and the Cuban culture. Attracts attention the monumental character and beauty of the big vaults, built in granite, marble and other valuable materials.

One of the most visited places in the churchyard is the Mausoleum of 24 meters height that keeps the ashes of José Martí, on amounts of earth of every country of Latin America, and where in a perpetual way falls a sunbeam on his tomb. It was inaugurated June 30 1951.

The cemetery of Santa Ifigenia was declared National Monument February 7 1937 and ratified as such by the Revolutionary Government May 20 1979.
Main Tombs and Monuments of the Cemetery:

* Mausoleum to José Martí Pérez
* Pantheon of Revolution’s The Martyrs
* Pantheon of the Dead for the Defense
* Tomb of Tomás Estrada Palma
* Tomb to The Martyrs of San Juan de Wilson
* Tomb of Mariana Grajales, Maceos’ mother
* Tomb of Dominga Moncada, General Guillermón Moncada’s mother
* Tomb of María Cabrales, Antonio Maceo’s wife
* The Heroes' Altarpiece
* Pantheon of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes
* Pantheon to the Martyrs of Virginius

Mapa de Santa Ifigenia Cemetery

Santa Ifigenia Cemetery 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 Monuments: Santa Ifigenia Cemetery