Published on 2020-04-14 by
Norlan Echevarria
This April 4 the city of Holguín turned 300 years old. Nearly 1,500 constructive actions of restoration and maintenance gave a renewed image to the territory of eastern Cuba founded on the same date in 1720.
As a tribute, we offer a text prepared by the Cuban Ministry of Tourism, which recreates with singular beauty the attractions of this destination of great historical and cultural significance.
Holguín, the most beautiful land
The new world honored Christopher Columbus with the discovery of this land, perfect for anchoring time and desire. Full of charms, with a past of more than five centuries that marked its history of privileges, Holguín is a place where wonders colluded to amaze the world.
Bariay, the place where the Grand Admiral first set foot on Cuban soil, is in this eastern province, owner of magnificent nature and a rich cultural and historical tradition. Sierras, plains and charming beaches alternate in their landscape, giving it the status of one of the best tourist destinations on the island.
Its beaches are among the most beautiful in the Caribbean, its warm and safe waters, protected by coral formations, are surrounded by thick vegetation that contrasts and enhances the tone of the sand and the sea. Among them, Guardalavaca stands out, becoming the most attractive seaside resort on the north east coast. Also beautiful are Pesquero, Esmeralda, Don Lino and Costa Verde, where practicing water sports and diving offer amazing and fun alternatives.
The province also treasures many sites of historical, cultural, anthropological, landscape and tourist interest that make up options for its residents and visitors. Known as the archaeological capital of Cuba, Holguín has the privilege of having the only site museum in the Caribbean that exhibits primitive funeral habits: Chorro de Maíta. In this archaeological site, the most important on the island, 56 of the 108 skeletons found are exhibited and very close, reproduced on a natural scale, a Taino village exhibits 38 human sculptures that recreate habits and traditions of the first settlers of Cuba. The figures, the work of the sculptors Argelio Cobiellas and Lauro Echavarría Osorio, were conceived with a realism that gives them considerable artistic value.
Holguineros, authentic Cubans, are lovers of culture and cultivate it in many of its disciplines. Holguín has given the country relevant men, such as the composer and performer Faustino Oramas, better known as El Guayabero; the outstanding pianist Frank Fernández and the plastic artist Cosme Proenza.
The peasant's music, a local tradition, reigns in the annual May Pilgrimages or the Ibero-American Culture Festival and the seventh art shows its potential every April in Gibara, where the already famous International Film Festival is gaining more and more followers.
And it is that Holguín summarizes in its territory benefits to please various wishes. Its nature invites, its culture promises and its beauty provokes and enamors. Without a doubt, the visitor will take up the words of Christopher Columbus when he disembarked in Bariay exclaimed: "This is the most beautiful land that human eyes saw ..."