Stunning as it materializes above the village of El Cobre, Cuba's most revered religious site shimmers against the verdant hills behind. Having been recently renovated – along with many other of Cuba's churches – the church's interior is impressive; light, but unostentatious with some vivid stained glass. The existing basilica was built in 1927, though a sanctuary has existed on this site since 1648.
Despite an almost unending line of pilgrims, many of whom will have traveled from as far as the US, the church maintains a respectful silence and is overlooked by La Virgen who resides in a glass case high above the altar. For such a powerful entity, she's amazingly diminutive, some 40cm from crown to the hem of her golden robe. Check out the fine Cuban coat of arms in the center; it's a wondrous work of embroidery.
In a small chapel at the side of the basilica you'll see a small collection drawn from thousands of offerings giving thanks for favors bestowed by the virgin. Clumps of hair, a TV, a thesis, a tangle of stethoscopes, a raft inner-tube sculpture (suggesting they made it across the Florida Straits safely) and floor-to-ceiling clusters of teeny metal body parts crowd the room.
Follow the signs through the town of El Cobre to the Monumento al Cimarrón . A 10-minute hike up a stone staircase brings you to this anthropomorphic sculpture commemorating the 17th-century copper-mine slave revolt and now the location of one of Cuba's most important Santería gatherings in July, Ceremonia a las Cimarrones (part of the Fiesta del Caribe). Views are superb from up here; walk to the far side of the sculpture for a vista of copper-colored cliffs hanging over the aqua-green reservoir.
