Also known as the City of Bridges, Matanzas is the cradle of illustrious poets and patriots, a center of great cultural and religious richness formed on the strong industrial impulse granted by the influx of sugar plantation owners and the work of African slaves in the sugar mills and plantations, pillars of fortune and the material and immaterial heritage of the land also praised as the Athens of Cuba.

In the first decades of the 19th century, the settlement of Saint Charles and Saint Severinus of Matanzas, which had been founded in October 1693, became an important economic, cultural and literary centre in Cuba. This remarkable socioeconomic transformation, just like its urban and constructive development and the splendour of the arts in the town, were directly related to the flourishing cane sugar production, the prosperity of trade in the port, the settlement of rich families in the area and the introduction of the printing press. 

Matanzas, close to the bay of the same name and with three rivers fl owing through its urban area, has a privileged geographical location that complements exceptionally its urban tissue and its impressive architectural heritage of a marked classicist nature, which stands out because of the prevailing neoclassical buildings next to eclectic, art nouveau, art deco or modern constructions, and bridges of unusual majesty, in an incomparable historical stratifi cation and representative of both its tangible and intangible heritage.

The relevant historical, architectural and monumental values of its built-up heritage, representative of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and the harmony with its environment, as well as its historical, literary and cultural heritage led to the declaration in October 2013 of a total of 92.20 hectares of Matanzas’ historic centre as National Monument. 

The city treasures buildings and monuments considered as indispensable for the preservation of heritage. Among the most important ones are the Castle of Saint Severinus, the Sauto Theatre, the Triolet pharmacy, the Holy Cathedral of Saint Charles Borromeo, the Church of Saint Peter the Apostle in the Versailles district, the monument to José Martí at the centre of the municipal square, the Gener y Del Monte Public Library, the railway station, the Main Fire Station and the Provincial Museum in the Junco Palace.

Matanzas’ cultural intangible heritage also covers numerous and attractive artistic manifestations related to the oral tradition of rites, legends and popular stories, theatre, literature, traditional music, concert music, dance, popular festivities and local handicrafts. Matanzas is well known as the cradle of danzón, rumba, danzonete and batá rumba.