FORMER MAYOR'S OFFICE

It was here that Fidel Castro gave his first speech after what he called the "triumph of the revolution" on January¹, 1959. And this was also the location of Santiago's city hall, which was transformed into a museum dedicated to the life of Fidel Castro, following the death of the Líder máximo in 2016. A choice all the more logical since he was a native of the Oriente region and is buried in the Santa Ifigenia cemetery in Santiago.

The history of the building. The city hall of Santiago was one of the oldest in Latin America. Built by order of Diego Velázquez at the beginning of the 16th century, its first walls were made of palm wood. It was a prison and a hospital, and served as the headquarters of Governor Hernán Cortés before he set out to conquer Mexico. During the second half of the 19th century, the building was remodeled in a neoclassical style with a single floor and two large interior courtyards. The current building, erected around 1950, was designed by the architect Francisco Prats. In this reconstruction, special attention was paid to respecting the original materials and forms. Thus, the building exhibits continuous balconies (from the central balcony you can admire the beautiful Andalusian patio), wooden bars on the windows, solid wood doors with large nails and Creole tiles covering the roofs.

It should be noted that when we last visited, the building was not accessible because of the work being done to convert it into a museum on the history of Fidel Castro.