Santa Clara - city center (Santa Clara)

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Santa Clara is the capital city of the Cuban province of Villa Clara. It is located in the most central region of the province and almost in the most central region of the country.

Monuments and parks

Santa Clara is home to a mausoleum which houses the remains of Che Guevara and sixteen of his fellow combatants killed in 1967 during the Bolivia campaign. He was laid to rest with full military honors on 17 October 1997 after his exhumed remains were returned to Cuba from Bolivia. At the site, there is a museum dedicated to Guevara's life. There is also a reconstruction of Guevara derailing the train during the Battle of Santa Clara. In 2004, 205,832 persons visited the mausoleum, including 127,597 foreigners, from countries such as Argentina, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Africa, the United States, and Venezuela.

In Santa Clara's center is a park (Parque Vidal) and it is laid on an entire square block. In the park there is a statue of Marta Abreu, a person much loved by the people of Santa Clara. Bordering the park is the Santa Clara Libre (formerly the Gran Hotel), Teatro de La Caridad, the Plaza del Mercado Central, the former City Hall and the Colonia Española de Santa Clara center of dance, offers the most attractive and unique traditional customs of hinterland Cuba.

Parque Vidal, Santa Clara is probably one of the most traditional places in Cuba. During the afternoons, people (specially singles) visit the park to meet others. Although not widely practiced in recent times, the custom was to walk the park around and around. The women walk the inner part of the park, while the men walk the outer side. Another lost custom was for the locals to set up a platform and offer improvisations with their guitars on late Sunday afternoons. For that day they dressed with their Guayaberas and highly polished shoes.

Prior to 1 January 1977, Santa Clara was located in Las Villas Province. On that date, as part of a general administrating reordering of Cuba's provinces, Las Villas province was reordered into the provinces of Villa Clara, Cienfuegos, and Sancti Spíritus. Santa Clara is in the province now known as Villa Clara.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   22°23'59"N   79°57'43"W

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