Sancti Spíritus

Sancti Spiritus is a city in Central Cuba. Founded in 1514, it is among the oldest Spanish settlements in Cuba and has a number of colonial era buildings.

House in Sancti Spiritus

Understand

Escambray, is the local periodical.

Get in

Viazul provides several buses a day from Camagüey, Havana, Santa Clara and Santiago de Cuba. There is also service to Trinidad and Varadero.

There is an overnight train to/from Havana on alternate days, and there may be a (very) early morning train to Santa Clara and Cienfuegos that returns in the afternoon. Sancti Spiritus is not on the main line. Check that the trains are running in advance.

• 1 Sancti Spíritus railway station. (updated Nov 2022)

Get around

There are very few taxis in Sancti Spiritus, but horse carts and bicycle-taxis are all over. Horse carts wait outside the bus terminal and leave when full to the Parque Serafin Sanchez in the historical centre of the city.

See

A pedestrian boulevard in Sancti Spiritus.

Sights in Sancti Spiritus include:

• 1 Parroquial Mayor church. The oldest church in Cuba. (updated Nov 2022)
• 2 Colonial Art Museum (Museo de Arte Colonial). Displays 19th Century furniture in a huge house that once belonged to the Valle-Iznaga family (updated Nov 2022)
• The bridge over the Rio Yayabo, built by the Spanish in 1815
• Street market along Calle Llano, which is paved with cobblestones (just east of the museo de Arte Colonial)
• Fundacion de la Naturaleza y El Hombre, located off the Parque Maceo in the northern part of the city centre, which documents the 17,422-km canoe trip from Equador to Barbados led by Cuban writer Antonio Nunez Jimenez in 1987.

Do

Take a walk through the historical centre of the city, starting from the train station in the south and ending at the Parque Maceo in the north.

Sleep

There are two hotels in Sancti Spiritus -- the Hostal del Rijo off the Plaza Honorato and the Hotel Plaza off the Parque Serafin Sanchez. Both are in historical colonial buildings.

There are about two dozen casa particulares to choose from. Touts will meet all incoming buses and happily escort you to a casa.