Batey Jaronu is currently a transit point to Cayo Cruz, where the Ministry of Tourism is focusing its efforts to build 25,000 rooms that will turn that destination into a potential sun and beach resort. Photo: Julio Antonio Alvite Piedra. Courtesy of Grupo de Turismo Gaviota S.A.

Among the development strategies to boost tourism in the northern keys of this Cuban region, the Batey Jaronu, a National Monument, currently stands out.

Located in the north of Camaguey, the community, which houses an Agroindustrial Sugar Complex, stands out for preserving the typical architecture of the US villages of the first decades of the 20th century.

Several natural and cultural attractions can be seen in the surroundings of the present town, also known as Brasil, in the municipality of Esmeralda.

According to Cadena Agramonte’s website, ‘that sugar heritage is an inseparable element of the Cuban people’s identity, and a living example is this sugar mill,’ explained architect Gerson Herrera, a professor at the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies on Tourism (CEMTUR) at the University of Camaguey.

The researcher also added that ‘bringing those values to the visitor as a complementary service to sun and beach tourism is the fundamental goal. What is more, one of the three axes of the project is the creation of a thematic railroad that joins the municipal capital with the ‘batey’ (a typical Cuban countryside town), with a route through several villages whose cultural heritage is visible to the visitor.’

Since 2017, the Office of the Historian of the City of Camaguey has been working on the recovery of the infrastructure of the town with the purpose of rescuing the heritage of buildings, inspired by US architecture, mainly from the south, which in turn reproduces elements of German constructions.

Batey Jaronu is currently a transit point to Cayo Cruz, where the Ministry of Tourism is focusing its efforts to build 25,000 rooms that will turn that destination into a potential sun and beach resort, 540 kilometers east of Havana.

Source: Periodico Digital Centroamericano y del Caribe