Cuba Guide
Santiago de Cuba
Museo Emilio Bacardí Moreau and around
Opening time: Tues– Sat 9.15am–8.15pm, Sun 9am–12.15pm, Mon 2–8.15pm
Price: $2CUC, $1CUC extra for cameras, although photography of most displays is prohibited
Of all the museums in Santiago, the essential one is the stately Museo Emilio Bacardí Moreau, on the corner of Aguilera and Pío Rosado. Its colonial antiquities, excellent collection of Cuban fine art and archeological curios – including an Egyptian mummy – make it one of the most comprehensive hoards in the country.
The ground floor is devoted to the Sala de Conquista y Colonización, full of elaborate weaponry like sixteenth-century helmets, cannons and spurs, and a heavy mace like a twist of silver candy, although copper cooking pots and the like add a suggestion of social history. Much more sinister here are the whips, heavy iron chains and the Palo Mata Negro (or Kill-the-Black stick), all used to whip and beat slaves.
The museum really comes into its own on the second floor, with an excellent display of paintings and sculpture, including some fascinating nineteenth-century portraits of colonial Cubans, amongst them Frederico Martínez Matos's insightful society studies and Manuel Vicens's 1864 family portrait, Interior de la Casa de Juan Bautista Sagarra. A surprise is the delicately executed series of watercolours – including a rather camp cavalryman and an enigmatic picador – by the museum's founder, multitalented Emilio Bacardí himself.