Weddings are easier and faster to arrange on the Dutch part of the island, so some couples marry on the Dutch side and spend their honeymoon in French St Martin.
By Caribe Insider Santa Clara, the city in the center of the island of Cuba, is already 331 years old and maintains the charm similar to the aroma that emanates from the bouquet of a good wine that invites you to taste it. It was on July 15th, 1689, when, protected by the branches of the tamarind tree and in front of a hundred people, the founding mass of the future village was officiated on the Loma del Carmen. It was a time when corsairs and pirates broke into villages near the sea and in fear of their sieges, robberies and murders, a group of wealthy families from San Juan de los Remedios moved inland to create the settlement and live more peacefully. This is how the embryo of the charming city of Santa Clara, which was initially named Los Dos Cayos, was born, and after growing in number of inhabitants it was called Pueblo Nuevo de Anton Diaz. Currently Santa Clara is the head city of the province of Villa Clara and covers 668 square kilometers and a population that exceeds 240 thousand inhabitants, with an economy based mainly on industry and services. The Leoncio Vidal Park, declared a National Monument in 1999, is located in the heart of the city's historic center. Previously it was called Plaza de Armas, Plaza Mayor and Plaza de la Constitución. The Ernesto Guevara Sculpture Complex, where the remains of the Argentine-Cuban doctor and several of his fellow guerrillas in Bolivia rest, an institution that has received four million visitors, most of them from different nations. TheMejunje, a somewhat bohemian cultural center, is very popular and is located in the ruins of an old hotel where plays are performed, music is listened to and drag shows take place. La Caridad Theater, founded in 1883-1885 by Marta Abreu, benefactor of the city, is described as an architectural jewel located in a street that surrounds Leoncio Vidal Park. Gloria Street, located in the historical center of the three-hundredth-century city of Santa Clara, is one of the oldest streets in the town and one of the most notorious, due to the traditional festivals it hosts every summer. The Monument to the Taking of the Armored Train: During the War of Liberation, Ernesto Che Guevara led the battle of Santa Clara and derailed an armored train of the opposition government, so that fact is remembered in this site converted into a museum of freight cars. The Hotel Santa Clara Libre, built in 1954, was the tallest building in that area, in one of the streets surrounding the Leoncio Vidal Park. It is operated by the Isla Azul hotel chain.
Weddings are easier and faster to arrange on the Dutch part of the island, so some couples marry on the Dutch side and spend their honeymoon in French St Martin.
