Remedios
One Of The Earliest Spanish Settlements In Cuba, With Two Churches On One Square And The December Parrandas, Inscribed By UNESCO As Intangible Cultural Heritage · Remedios, Villa Clara
Remedios was founded in the first years of the Spanish presence in Cuba and then largely forgotten, which is why its square is still one of the loveliest in the country: two churches face each other across it, and inside the Iglesia Mayor is a gilded mahogany altar that had been plastered over and was only uncovered in the 1940s. For most of the year it is a quiet town where almost nothing happens. Then in the second half of December it becomes something else entirely. The two neighbourhoods, San Salvador and El Carmen, spend the year secretly building enormous illuminated towers, and on Christmas Eve they haul them into the square and compete all night with them, with street bands and with hours of fireworks fired at close range. UNESCO inscribed the parrandas of central Cuba as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2018, and almost no foreign visitor has ever seen one. The rest of the year the rivalry shows only in the rooster and the hawk painted on doorways across the town.
Plaza Marti, San Juan de los Remedios, Villa Clara, Remedios, Villa Clara, Cuba
The square is open at all times. The Iglesia Mayor, the Museo de las Parrandas Remedianas and the Museo de Musica Alejandro Garcia Caturla keep daytime hours with a weekly closing day. THE PARRANDAS RUN THROUGH THE SECOND HALF OF DECEMBER and climax on Christmas Eve, with the fireworks and floats going on all night; the exact schedule is set locally each year.