The scholar highlighted the work of Felipe Martinez Arango, considered the father of modern archeology here, who, together with his disciples, contributed significant knowledge about the aboriginal world, some 3,000 years before the foundation of the village in 1515.

Duharte noted that in colonial archeology, the contributions of the researcher of Catalonian origin Francisco Prats Puig, an architect of the restoration of the house attributed to Conquistador Diego Velazquez, in the city’s historic heart, which is considered among the oldest houses in Latin America.

He mentioned his work in the recovery of the house where the first National Poet, Jose Maria Heredia, was born, and of the San Pedro de la Roca del Morro fortress, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 1998.

The professor praised the works done by the archaeologists and other workers from the Office of the City Curator in the total rehabilitation of the Fraternidad coffee plantation, another of those places of great patrimonial value in Santiago de Cuba.

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