Before Havana existed as a capital, before a single mill was raised in the Valley of the Sugar Mills, there was already a town called Sancti Spíritus. Founded in 1514, it's one of the oldest European settlements in the whole American continent: when the Mayflower pilgrims set foot on North America in 1620, the Sancti Spíritus town already had more than a century of history. That antiquity —which today few travelers suspect as they cross its brick bridge— is the key to understanding why this quiet city of central Cuba keeps almost five centuries written in its streets.
Sancti Spíritus was born in 1514 as one of the first seven towns founded in Cuba by the adelantado Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, during the Spanish conquest and colonization of the island. Together with Baracoa, Bayamo, Trinidad, Havana, Puerto Príncipe (Camagüey) and Santiago de Cuba, it made up the original network of settlements that the Spanish established to control the territory, distribute the indigenous workforce and organize the exploitation of the island.
The chosen name, 'Sancti Spíritus' —'Holy Spirit' in Latin—, reflects the deep religious imprint of the conquest, which used to place the new foundations under Christian patronages. The town was organized, like all those of the era, around a church and a square, the nucleus from which the settlement grew.
The original founding was not done, however, in the place where the city is today. The first Sancti Spíritus rose on the banks of the Tuinucú river, but the conditions of the site —among them problems of water and sanitation— soon led to the search for a better location. That relocation, which occurred a few years after the founding, would mark the true definitive rooting of the town.
A few years after the founding of 1514, the town of Sancti Spíritus was moved from its original location next to the Tuinucú river to its current location, on the banks of the Yayabo river. This move, usually placed around 1522, sought a site with better conditions of water, soil and defense, and was the one that gave rise to the city we know today.
The Yayabo river was thus indissolubly linked to the Sancti Spíritus identity. Its name, of indigenous (Taíno) root, baptized not only the river and the famous colonial bridge, but also much of the local culture. In fact, those born in Sancti Spíritus are colloquially called 'yayaberos', and the word resounds in the music and traditions of the region.
From its new location, the town grew around its parish church and its square, with narrow streets and tile-roofed houses adapted to the climate. The river, besides being a source of water, offered some protection and articulated the life of the population. Over it would be built, centuries later, the brick bridge that today is a National Monument and symbol of the city.
Like so many towns of the colonial Caribbean, Sancti Spíritus suffered during the 16th and 17th centuries the attacks of pirates and corsairs who ravaged the coasts and ventured inland in search of loot. Despite not being directly on the sea, its relative closeness to the coast and the wealth accumulated by its inhabitants made it a target of raids, which forced the population to defend itself and to rebuild what was damaged.
During this period, the town consolidated its economy around cattle ranching, tobacco and, later, sugar. Livestock raising and trade —largely smuggling, dodging the commercial monopoly imposed by the Spanish Crown— sustained the population and allowed some families to accumulate fortune and prestige. That boom translated into the construction of churches, mansions and buildings that still today form the historic center.
The Parroquial Mayor del Espíritu Santo church, whose stone building dates from the mid-17th century, is the most eloquent testimony of this stage: one of the oldest churches in Cuba, raised in solid construction precisely to resist the passage of time and the vicissitudes of the era. Around it grew the town that would reach the following centuries with its colonial physiognomy well defined.
Between the 18th and 19th centuries, the Sancti Spíritus region lived the flourishing of the sugar economy, especially linked to the nearby Valley of the Sugar Mills, where dozens of mills produced sugar with the labor of enslaved African people. Families of the local aristocracy, like the Iznaga and the Valle, accumulated enormous fortunes, raised stately mansions and became an elite that left its mark on the architecture and social life of the town.
That prosperity translated into notable works. The most famous is the bridge over the Yayabo river, built in the first half of the 19th century with fired-brick arches: the only one of its kind preserved in Cuba and today a National Monument. In this stage were also erected or renovated palaces, mansions and public buildings, and the town gained the elegant colonial air it still keeps.
The 19th century was also the century of Cuba's wars of independence against Spain. The Sancti Spíritus region contributed figures and combatants to the cause, among them General Serafín Sánchez, a son of the city, who gives his name to its main square. The wars left a deep mark on the population and in its memory, and prepared the way toward the independent Cuba of the 20th century.
With independence and the birth of the Republic in the 20th century, Sancti Spíritus continued to be an important city of central Cuba, sustained by the agriculture, cattle ranching and sugar of its region. Its location on the Central Highway, the great road that runs the island from one end to the other, reinforced its role as a stopping point and service center.
The central zone of Cuba was the scene of decisive events during the Cuban Revolution of the late 1950s, since actions of the war and campaigns that culminated at the end of 1958 were fought here. After the revolutionary triumph of 1959, the region joined the economic and social transformations of the country, and later, with the new political-administrative division of 1976, Sancti Spíritus became the capital of its own province.
In recent decades, the heritage value of its colonial historic center —one of the best preserved in Cuba— has been increasingly recognized and used for cultural tourism. Although it usually stays in the shadow of nearby and very touristy Trinidad, Sancti Spíritus claims its place as one of the oldest towns in the country, with almost five centuries of history written in its streets, its church, its bridge and its mansions. The full history of the region intertwines with that of the nearby Valley of the Sugar Mills and the town of Trinidad, with which it forms one of the most valuable colonial ensembles in the Caribbean.