Cienfuegos
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Urban Historic Centre Of Cienfuegos, 2005); Founded In 1819 By French Settlers And The Most Completely Neoclassical City In The Caribbean · Cienfuegos, Cienfuegos
Cienfuegos is the odd one out among Cuban cities and that is precisely why UNESCO listed it. It was founded in 1819 by French settlers from Louisiana and Bordeaux, at a moment when neoclassicism was the only style anyone in Europe was building in, and it went up all at once on a grid beside an enormous sheltered bay: colonnades, pediments, and a central square - the Parque Jose Marti - surrounded by public buildings of a formality found nowhere else in the Caribbean. The theatre on it still has its original wooden seats and painted ceiling. South of the centre, a peninsula called Punta Gorda runs into the bay lined with timber villas, ending at the Palacio de Valle, a Moorish fantasy of a mansion built by a sugar millionaire, whose roof terrace is the best place in the city to watch the sun go down. The bay breeze makes it the most comfortable of the Cuban cities in summer, and nothing else on the island looks remotely like it.
Parque Jose Marti, Cienfuegos, Cienfuegos, Cienfuegos, Cuba
The city and the Parque Jose Marti are open at all hours. The Teatro Tomas Terry, the Palacio Ferrer and the museums keep daytime hours and close on varying days. The Palacio de Valle operates as a restaurant and bar with its roof terrace open into the evening. Power cuts close things without notice. Boats across the bay run to no fixed schedule.