“Its exquisite blend of culture, nature, and history continues to give this city a unique charm,” he expressed on the social network X.

Baracoa, which today is part of the province of Guantanamo, maintains its colonial essence. Out of the first seven towns Spaniards founded at that time, it is the only one that remains on its original site, while the others changed location for various reasons.

In his diaries, Christopher Columbus describes a tall, square mountain, known today as Yunque de Baracoa, and left the cross Santa Cruz de la Parra at the entrance of its port, which is the only existing evidence of the colonizers’ arrival in the so-called New World.

On August 15, 1911, the day dedicated to the Virgin of the Assumption, Diego Velazquez chose it as the site to found the first settlement in Cuba.

It boasts a beautiful bay on its eastern coast, with several tributary rivers and a settlement that the native Arawaks called Baracoa, meaning high land or land with hills.

The city was declared a National Monument on October 10, 1972, and maintains its charm as a primeval town.

jdt/ro/bbb