Matanzas City
Capital city
of province Matanzas, is an industrial city with about 120.000
inhabitants.
Between Habana and Varadero, you will cross this city.
As being a Dutch website I have
to remember you that our own Piet Heyn concured the "Zilvervloot"
from the Spaniards in the bay of Matanzas in 1628, there even
is a statue of Piet Heyn at the Bay side.
The name Matanzas sounds weird … because
it really mean "mass murder" in Spanish. Could be this name
come from, the beginning of de 16th century the Spaniards
kill a lot of Indians the regular inhabitants of this area,
but a second story is about just the killing of cows and other
animals and were shipped from Hicacos … anyway, the name Matanzas
is strange.
Matanzas,
a prosperous, culturemided city that was founded in 1693 and
which some call the Athens of Cuba, in reference to its many
poets, and others the Cuban Venice, due to the five bridges
that cross it at different streches of its Yumuri and San
Juan rivers.
Monumental
buildings of neclassical features are a proof of the boom
that this quiet city has experienced beginning in late 18th
century. Matanzas grew around a large bay, well protected
by a solid network of fotresses the most important of which
can still be visited and admired today.
Matanzas
is also the birth place of the Cuban national dance "The
Danzon" and of the "Danzonete"; it was and
still is a prominent rumba dancing place, and the home town
of numerous artists, composers, and intellectuals, who are
responsible for the city's traditionally intense, thriving
cultural life.
At
the head of the harbor, close to the downtown center, you'll
find a couple of small stretches of beach, where there will
almost always be a few locals swimming, fishing, and sunbathing.
However, the harbor is quite industrial and I'd highly recommend
you head over to Varadero for some much more inviting beaches.
Matanzas photo gallery |
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