Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption

The whitewashed cathedral on the Plaza Independencia is the heart of colonial Baracoa. The current building dates from the 1830s, replacing an earlier 1512 church destroyed by fire and hurricanes. The interior is plain — bare wooden beams, simple pews, an unfussy altar — but the relic it houses gives the building national significance.

The Cruz de la Parra, the only one of the 29 wooden crosses that Columbus is said to have planted around the New World whose authenticity is taken seriously, is kept here in a side chapel. The cross has been worn down over the centuries by pilgrims taking splinters, and is now protected behind glass. The cathedral keeps fairly relaxed opening hours; if it is locked, ask in the square.

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A story
Inside the cathedral, in a glass case to the right of the altar, is the Cruz de la Parra — a wooden cross said to have been planted by Christopher Columbus when he landed on Cuba in 1492. Carbon dating in 1988 confirmed the wood is 16th-century Cuban cocuyo, not Spanish oak — which means it might really be the original cross, made of local timber once Columbus realised he was not on the Asian mainland.