Hacienda Guáimaro

"A wonderful stop away from the crowds (and the fair share of street vendors trying to sell you just about anything) in Manaca Iznaga.

We were warmly welcome by the two guides there who took us on a very informative tour of the house and the property, and answered all our questions about Valle de Los Ingenios and the Trinidad region (we spoke Spanish). What’s more, the price of the visit is 50 pesos/person.

Definitely worth a visit!"

Thomas Pawlak

"This small villa in the middle of nowhere was a wonderful stop in the course of our visit of Valley de los Igenios. The guide of the house took us through a full immersion in the history of this house, his family and the way in which the story of Borell's family crossed the story of Cuba and his struggle for independency. Absolutely worth a visit.

Please be aware that road signal are very poor!! Take right on the main road (Circuito Sur) when you see the tourist signal, after few minutes a very small signal indicated "Guaimaro" on the right. Pass the first few meter of muddy road and you're arrived."

Davide Masi

"The Guáimaro Sugar Mill Hacienda is one of the jewels of 19th-century colonial architecture in Trinidad. The Valley of the Sugar Mills boasted, in what was once the Guáimaro hacienda, one of the "colossi" that helped forge the legend of Trinidadian fortunes, and placed Trinidad among the top three most important cities in Cuba in the first half of the 19th century.

In 1830, this sugar mill had a staff of 300 male slaves. A plan drawn up in 1857 depicts this sugar mill with a slave village. Like Manaca-Iznaga, it was built of mud and guano, but located on the slope of the hill that served as the base for the large residential house.

The Guáimaro sugar mill had 84 caballerías (84 caballerías). In 1827, the highest harvest in the world at the time was achieved: 82,000 @ of raw and purged sugar (more than 900 tons). In 1830, it was valued at the exalted sum of 459,527 pesos.

The third generation of the Borrell family, José Mariano Borrell y Lemus, was the one who gave the final shape to this beautiful house that survives to this day. He hired the famous Italian architect, decorator, and painter based in Cuba, Daniel Dall Aglio, designer of the Sauto Theater and the Church of San Pedro Apóstol, both works in Matanzas, to decorate the interior of the Guáimaro sugar mill. This work was completed by February 1859. It is assumed that it was carried out in the 1840s and consisted of one of the most beautiful halls in the country, covered from floor to ceiling in murals depicting Romantic and Neoclassical themes in the European style.

Large paintings, framed with ovals and squared with fretwork, as if they were canvases placed on them. The paintings depict bucolic, pastoral scenes, ruined castles, or reproductions of neoclassical architectural complexes and the characteristic willows seen in Romantic paintings. The wall decoration, divided into fields, is very different from what we consider popular.
Mural Painting

Lines disappear in favor of volumes, with perspective effects. We can appreciate the use of tight, barely perceptible brushstrokes, which form large patches in which the gradation of tones is the main support for delimiting the images. The treatment of light, especially that of the sunset, is one of the best effects achieved by these paintings.

Since 2000, the Office of the Conservator of Trinidad and the Valle de los Ingenios has been carrying out several restoration projects on this house, which include rigorous work to recover these mural paintings. Once the restoration of this house and its surroundings is complete, it will become the Valley Interpretation Center, a Sugar Museum, where all the sugar-producing activities of the Trinidad region during the 18th and 19th centuries will be on display."

Humberto Cardoso Cabrera