Plaza Martiana Square, Las Tunas

Do not miss the visit to the plaza of the Apostle Square, dedicated to the national hero José Martí, on your way through Las Tunas, Cuba

Plaza Martiana Square
© Las Tunas Travel

The beautiful original square dedicate to the National Hero José Martí is one of the must-visit places for the tourists who choose Las Tunas as destination.

Work of the architect Domingo Alás Rosell, this square is located in the old town of the City of Las Tunas, and it is the perfect result of a project of Solar Architecture where it is mixed and combine the Astronomy and the History.

Its name comes from the revolutionary intellectual José Martí, and it was opened in March 1995 to commemorate the centenary of the Montecristi Manifesto, official document of the Cuban Revolutionary Party in which were collected the ideas to organize the Independence War of Cuba of 1895, signed by José Marí and Máximo Gómez.

Walk by the plaza Martiana Square and stop to see one of the most unique and important sculptures at national and international level. The sculpture was designed and carved by the famous Cuban sculptor Rita Longa. It presents the Cuba’s National Hero, José Martí, also known as the ‘Apostle’ or the ‘Master’; since he was not only a great political thinker, but also a writer and poet who stood out in the Modernism Literary Movement. The appealing thing of this monument is that it makes a whole along with the square, acquiring full sense in relation to other elements present on it.

The square counts with three fundamental components: a changeable solar reflector, a solar calendar and a solar watch which set the time accurately. In close connection with with the shadow’s movement works the calendar located on the floor, where there are important historical and astronomical dates for the community, as the birth and death of José Martí, or the solstices and equinoxes of the seasons. The reflector is a mirror colocated on the head of a pedestal which can project sunlight into the bronze face of the ‘Apostle’. The striking thing is that it is astronomically located so every 19th May at 2:30 P.M. the sunlight is reflected on the face of the sculpture; just the date and time of the death of the National Hero. A light effect in inspired in the verses of the poet:

‘Do not put me in the dark,
to die as a traitor,
I am good and as good,
I will die facing the Sun’

Equally, you can ask all your doubts to the little experts group that you will find as soon as you arrive at the square, in charge of showing the visitors every details of the components which conform it.

It can happen that when you get closer to the plaza Martiana Square it is occupied by some event, since it is traditional to use the monumental complex as scenario for acts, condecorations and other relevant events organized by different institutions and different centres of learning and work in the province. Among other functions, the square is allocated for activities of cultural amusement, political acts; there are also technical consultations for students just as scholars of the life and work of José Martí and, might have been expected, the celebration of a vigil concert every 27th January to commemorate the birth of the hero in the 28th of that month.

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Casco Histórico de Las Tunas, Cuba

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