• Pinar del Rio City
• Vinales

• Havana City
• Playa del Este

• Matanzas City
• Varadero
• Cardenas

• Santa Clara

• Cienfuegos City

• Sancti Spiritus
• Trinidad

• Ciego de Avila City
• Jardines del Rey

• Camaguey City

• Bayamo

• Santiago de Cuba City

• Guantanamo City
• Baracoa

• Holguin City

• Nueva Gerona
• Cayo Largo

• Cuban Education
• Cuban Cuisine
• Balseros
• Elian Gonzales

• Buena Vista Social Club
• Polo Montanes
• Compay Segundo

• General Info
• OFAC
• Embassies
• Internet access
• Crime
• Sex
• What to Bring
• Water Sports

• Before Columbus
• Hatuey
• Ernest Hemingway
• Jose Marti
• Ernesto "Che"Guevara
• Camilo Cienfuegos
• Fidel Castro Ruz
• Antonio Maceo
• Fulgencio Batista
• Gerardo Machado
• Carlos M Cespedes
• Spanish-American War
• Cuban Revolution
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Cuban-American Exiles
• The Bay of Pigs
• Cuban Anthem

Search...

Capital city of province Matanzas, is an industrial city with about 120.000 inhabitants. Between Habana and Varadero, you will cross this city.

As being a Dutch site I have to remind you that our own Piet Heyn concured the "Zilvervloot" from the Spaniards in the bay of Matanzas in 1628, there even is a statue of Piet Heyn at the Bay side.

The name Matanzas sounds weird…because it really mean "mass murder" in Spanish. Could be this name come from, the beginning of de 16th century the Spaniards kill a lot of Indians the regular inhabitants of this area, but a second story is about just the killing of cows and other animals and were shipped from Hicacos…anyway, the name Matanzas is strange.

Matanzas, a prosperous, culturemided city that was founded in 1693 and which some call the Athens of Cuba, in reference to its many poets, and others the Cuban Venice, due to the five bridges that cross it at different streches of its Yumuri and San Juan rivers.

Monumental buildings of neclassical features are a proof of the boom that this quiet city has experienced beginning in late 18th century. Matanzas grew around a large bay, well protected by a solid network of fotresses the most important of which can still be visited and admired today.

Matanzas ia also the birth place of the Cuban national dance "The Danzon" and of the "Danzonete"; it was and still is a prominent rumba dancing place, and the home town of numerous artists, composers, and intellectuals, who are responsible for the city's traditionally intense, thriving cultural life.

Monserrat Hermitage - In spired on a temple of similar name in Catalonia, Spain, it was completed in 1872. It has four statues, representing the four Catalonian regions; Lerida, Gerona, Tarragona, and Barcelona, and commands a complete view of Matanzas city and the Yumuri valley.

Cuevas de Bellamar
Sitio de interés
Ciudad de Matanzas

Museo Farmacéutico Museo Milanés No. 4951 - Its founders, doctors Ernest Triolet y Juan Fermin de Figueroa, opened a French pharmacy there on January 1th 1982, and started there after what has now become a valuable collection of the original porcelain bottles and containers, kept on hard wood shelves, together with a large set of mid 19th century laboratory objects and tools. It includes more than one million prescriptions with original formulas for the preperations of natural medications. The collection is said to be the most important exhibit of its kind outside od France.

Museo de los Bomberos
Institución
Plaza de la Vigía, Matanzas 

Museo Memorial “El Morrillo” Km. 1,5, Canimar - Built upon request by prominent local landowners, it was completed in the second decade of the 18th century. In 1975 it was fully renovated, then in 1991 it was proclaimed a National monument.

Museo Provincial
(Palacio de Junco)
Museo
Milanés, e/. Magdalena y Ayllón, Matanzas 

Casa de José Jacinto Milanés
Museo
Milanés, e/. Jovellanos y Matanzas, Matanzas

Plaza de La Vigía Centro Histórico Urbano, Magdalena, e/. Milanés y Río - Original Urban core, around which the city was later expanded. In its surroundings are important buildings like Teatro Sauto, Museo Palacio de Junco, and the firefighter station, among others.

Segunda Plaza de Armas
Parques
Ayuntamiento, e/. Milanés y Contreras, Matanzas

Teatro “Sauto” Magdalena, e/. Milanés y Medio - A neo-classical architectural jewel, of outstanding acoustic characteritics, founded on April 6th, 1863. It was proclaimed a national Monument in 1978, and has served as seasonal venue for ballet, opera, zarzuela, concert, music, variety shows, and drama. It is considered one of the most important cultural institutions in Latin America.

Palmar del Junco Sitio histórico, Calzada de Esteban, e/. Monserrate y San Ignacio - Its baseball field was constructed in 1847. Almost three decades after, on December 27th, 1874, the first baseball game ever organised in Cuba was played there.

Castillo de San Severino Carretera del Puerto, Zona Franca - Its dimension place it among the largest Spanish fortresses in the Americas. Perched on the western side of the Matanzas bay, it was acompleted in 1734 with the aim of protecting trade in the area, while also guarding the eastern flank of Havana against pirate attacks. It is a National Monument.

Plaza de la Libertad - Matanzas' second most important colonial plaza, it dates back from 1800. Overlooking are the Sala White, a theater constructed in 1863 in tribute to famous violinist Jose White; the Triolet Pharmaceutical Museum; and the Government House, built in 1853.