Parque Vidal
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Parque Vidal – National Historic Monument.
Located in the center of Santa Clara city covering an entire square block is Parque Vidal. In the middle of it, the Glorieta (gazebo) erected in 1911 still serves for public concerts. The entire surrounding elements conformed by eclectic, neo classic and colonial buildings plus the many monuments erected during different historic periods elevated the Park to a category of National Monument in ceremony in 1998.
Once a week, at night fall, the City’s Philharmonic Band reunites inside the structure and plays traditional music. North of the Glorieta, there is a standing bust in honor of Leoncio Vidal, the hero who died fighting in that very place against the Spanish forces, and for which the Park is named after. Next to it we find an Obelisk, the first monument raised in the park, dedicated to the priest who migrated from the coastal town of Remedios with other families and founded the city. Between these monuments, we find the iconic statue of “el niño de la bota” (Child with a boot). The same way Havana has the statue of “La Giraldilla” as its landmark, Santa Clara has hers with “el niño de la bota”. This bronze statue depicts a boy with a boot in his hand from which the water runs out. The original base was change for a more contemporary red granite in the 1960’s and, it remained that way until the 1990’s when, in an effort to recover the original design, the city rebuild it in its original form but the use of cheap materials have carved the way into the base. South of that statue we find another one of is a 1924’s bronze statue of Marta Abreu in bronze from 1924. She was much loved by the people of Santa Clara. The base of her statue is said to be a time capsule, since it has inside papers, magazines and objects collected during the construction and left inside it for future generations. Bordering the park, we find the Santa Clara Libre Hotel (formerly the Santa Clara Hilton), considered by critics and the general population, as the ugly duckling of the place. It contrasts with all the surrounding architecture both in scale and design. But, the building is still rich in history. Legend has it that with the upcoming revolution in 1959, projects for higher towers in the plaza were put to a hold; all of them were considered as a possibility of destroying the existing beautiful colonial and eclectic architecture. The walls of the Hotel are filled with holes created by machine guns during the attack of the rebel forces led by Che and Camilo in the city. The Teatro de La Caridad (Charity’s Theater) is one of the 7 gems of rural Colonial Cuba. The Plaza Central Hotel, former City Hall and the Colonial de Santa Clara center of dance, in a corner stands the Museum of Decorative Arts, with one of the biggest collections of decorative arts of the colonies of the country. Parque Vidal offers the most attractive and unique traditional customs of hinterland Cuba.
 Glorieta |
 Between Niño statue and the Glorieta stands and Obelisk in honor to the first priest of the city |
 Niño de la bota (Child with boot) |
 Teatro La Caridad |
 Former City Hall now Marti Library |
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