Trinidad
UNESCO World Heritage Site (Trinidad And The Valley De Los Ingenios, 1988); A Colonial Town Founded In 1514 And The Sugar Valley Whose Slave Labour Paid For It · Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus
Trinidad was built on sugar and on the people who were enslaved to grow it, and both halves are in the UNESCO listing: the town, and the Valle de los Ingenios behind it where the mills stood. It made a great deal of money in the early nineteenth century, the market collapsed, and the town was left almost untouched for a hundred and fifty years - which is why the cobbled streets, the pastel single-storey houses with barred windows and the mansions on the Plaza Mayor survive as completely as they do. It is the most photogenic town in Cuba and it knows it, so the centre is busy with visitors and the hustle that follows them. Walk five minutes uphill and that stops. In the valley, the Manaca Iznaga tower still stands, built to watch the enslaved workers in the cane. The town is the most photogenic in Cuba and knows it, so the centre is busy and the hustle follows; walk five minutes uphill and it stops.
Plaza Mayor, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Trinidad, Sancti Spiritus, Cuba
The streets and the Plaza Mayor are open at all hours. Museums keep daytime hours and close on varying days; power cuts close them without notice. The Casa de la Musica steps and the town's live music start in the early evening. The Valle de los Ingenios is open country reached by road or by the tourist train, which runs only when fuel and rolling stock allow.