4 Best Sights in Central Cuba, Cuba

Most of the important buildings of Cienfuegos surround the central Parque José Martí which contains an impressive marble statue, carved in 1902, of the Cuban revolutionary and intellectual for whom it was named. Near the park's western end is a tiny replica of the Arc de Triomphe, a nod to the city's French heritage, and just south of the Martí statue stands a domed kiosk, where the municipal band sometimes gives weekend concerts. East of the park, Avenida 54 is a pedestrian mall—lined with shops and restaurants—called El Boulevard.

Before the Revolution, the Workers Plaza was known as the Plaza de la Merced, after the church and convent that define its eastern edge. (Older people still refer to it by its former moniker.) A large mural of Che Guevara's eternally youthful visage stares past the ancient facade of La Merced in that distinctively Cuban juxtaposition of tradition and revolution. A kapok tree towers over the plaza's center, and in the southwest corner stands the stately La Popular, built in 1928 and the seat of a local cultural society.

This splendid cobbled square, surrounded by meticulously restored 18th- and 19th-century buildings (most still private homes), has been declared a national monument.

The heart of Sancti Spíritus is the Plaza Serafín Sánchez, a shady central park, roughly triangular in shape, and surrounded by an eclectic mix of 18th- and 19th-century architecture, including the town library and a museum with displays on the province's history. The park comes into its own as the sun goes down on the torrid afternoon and locals come out to chat and mingle.