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The cure: here live the happiest and closest Cubans

The cure: here live the happiest and closest Cubans

After visiting the city of Trinidad, located on the southern coast of Cuba, in the Caribbean Sea, you need to go up to the northern coast, towards the wonderful Cayos Santa Maria, which I will tell you about shortly. On your way, there is a necessary stop: the city of San Juan de los Remedios. It will be the third city founded by the Spanish colonizer (1513), after Baracoa and Santiago de Cuba. More than 500 years of history. Its historic center, which was declared a National Monument in 1980, still bears witness today to the Spanish colonial presence in the seventeenth century.

One of the main tourist attractions is certainly the Church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, which was inaugurated precisely on June 24, the feast of the patron saint. Admire its 13 magnificent gold-trimmed altars and its magnificent boat-shaped ceiling carved in precious mahogany from the island’s forests. Also one of the rare statues of the pregnant Virgin Mary. Every year, on June 24, the birthday of Saint Jean-Baptiste, and on August 29, the date of his beheading, folk festivals are organized. All excuses are good to meet, chat and party.

Even if the city of Remedios was not located directly on the Atlantic coast, it was constantly attacked by pirates and pirates, including the terrible sailor Jean-David Nau, nicknamed François Lonnois or Olonis, a former French soldier. He had a reputation for skinning his prisoners and then eating them. Alarmed by the parish priest, who alleged that Satan and his hordes of demons were haunting the city and preparing to destroy it, a part of the population decided, in 1689, to pack up and settle a few kilometers away, thus founding the city of Santa Clara. In order to protect the church from looting, the villagers who stayed behind decided to cover the gilding with several layers of paint. It was not until a few centuries later, around 1944, when we undertook to restore the church, that we discovered its precious altars and their exceptional gilding. Another curiosity: around this central square is a second Catholic church, Notre-Dame-du-bon-voyage, and a few blocks away, a replica of the Statue of Liberty, dressed in a Phrygian hat and armed with a sword symbolizing the machete of the mambi, the fighters of the Cuban Liberation Army, in XIX century.

Another feature that makes the city of Remedios famous, and not the least, is the organization of Christmas celebrations – from 16 to 24 December – of great popular gatherings, during which two districts of the city are artificially divided into two parts, the neighborhood of Carmen represented by the falcon and the neighborhood of San Salvador represented by the rooster, They confront each other with legends and colorful displays lit by literal fireworks. Each region has its own typical cocktail dish.

We come here as a family from everywhere, from Cuba and also from outside the country, to attend these extraordinary “battles” or “battles”. Parandas Where creativity and legend, a kind of Cuban fishing fair, compete in skill to merit popular enthusiasm. Then parade in Jose Martí’s central square, amidst deafening rockets and firecrackers, lit metaphor floats, followed by a line of supporters, while loudspeakers broadcast music and stories of legends that are likely to leave you in awe.

On several occasions during the year, one may attend exercises and exercises Parandas, a matter of feeding public expectations. Each side organizes itself with the utmost secrecy, but in the end, there are only winners, and everyone is fraternizing, while claiming their victory. A museum dedicated to this cheerful carnival.

The people of Remedios are absolutely the happiest and most likable Cubans I’ve met. since ParandasYou will live an unforgettable experience. Your travel agent will certainly be able to book you a room in the inns and colonial houses around the central square.

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