Cuban Monuments

• Cuban monuments help preserve the country's history.cuba flag button image by Andrey Zyk from Fotolia.com
  
  Cuba is the largest island of the West Indies. Originally populated by Amerindians, Cuba was claimed for Spain by Christopher Columbus in 1492. It became a Spanish colony where imported African slaves worked on sugar and coffee plantations. Colonists fought for their independence twice during the 19th century, and Cuba finally became an independent nation in 1902. Its monuments are a testament to its history, peoples and heroes.
  
  

Fuente de la India

• The Fuente de la India Noble Habana monument commemorates Amerindians, the indigenous race almost wiped out by diseases brought by Spanish colonizers. Outside the Hotel Saratoga, in the middle of the road (on a traffic island) at the junction of Paseo de Marti and Avenida Maximo Gomex, sits a fountain adorned with a female figure from Cuba's past. She is the legendary Amerindian queen who gave the province of Havana its name. Carved from white Carrara marble in 1837 by Giuseppe Gaginni for the Count of Villanueva, the statue features a crowned form on a throne guarded by four dolphin gargoyles. In one hand she bears a shield of the arms of Havana and in the other, a cornucopia (a vessel overflowing with fruits).
   
  Fuente de la India
  Paseo de Martí
  Centro Habana, Cuba
  
  

The Columbus Monument

• Popularly called "La Ciudad del Cangrejos"(the city of crabs), Cardenas is a coastal town 40 miles from Havana. It's also known as the "Flag City", since it was here the national flag first flew over the La Dominica Hotel. The island's oldest statue of Christopher Columbus sits in a tiny park in the city center. Parque Coló, named after its famous resident, is located across from the Catedral de la Concepción Imaculada. The Columbus Monument dates back to 1826 and moved to the park in 1962, commemorating the spot where the city was founded. The bronze figure traveled from the Marseilles studio of Jose Piquer, a Spaniard who later became director of sculpture at the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid.
  
  The Columbus Monument
  Parque Colon,
  Avenue de Cespedes, Calle 8 y 9,
  Cardenas, Cuba
  
  

Mausoleo Che Guevara

• The lively university town of Santa Clara is 150 miles east of Havana and 20 miles from the coast. It is famous as the scene of the last and most celebrated battle of the Cuban Revolution. The battle of Santa Clara, led by Ernesto "Che" Guevara turned in the rebel's favor when a bulldozer (preserved on a plinth) driven by Che's force successfully derailed the train carrying government troops. His statue towers over the his grave, the Mausoleo Che Guevara, next to the Museo Historico de la Revolucion. The famed revolutionary's remains were returned to Cuba in 1997 after being discovered in an unmarked grave in Bolivia, where he was executed in 1967.
   
  Mausoleo Ernesto Che Guevara
  Avenida de los Desfiles
  Santa Clara, Cuba