A UNESCO World Heritage City, Trinidad, and all it has to offer, is fast becoming one of the most popular destinations for tourists to stop off at. One look at the town's architecture and history, not to mention the friendliness of its people, and it's not hard to understand why this is the case.
HISTORY
As one of the original seven colonies, Cuba's first governor -Diego Velazquez - established Trinidad in 1514. Together with its near neighbor, Sancti Spiritus, the town would continue to prosper throughout the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries as a safe-haven for pirates to trade in. In the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, tobacco would takeover as this town's major tradable merchandise, cultivated using slave labor. However, following a massive influx of French immigrants fleeing Haiti, the town would once again change, and sugar became the predominate commodity of the town from the early part of the Nineteenth Century. With its new found wealth came a major period of building construction and some of the town's best know attraction today can be traced back to this period in its development. However, in recent times Trinidad has been hit by both of the Wars of Independence and the communist economic policies of central government. As such, large parts of the town's original wealth have now been depleted. However, its architectural collections are still considered to be one of the best in Latin America - making it a very popular place for tourist to visit. Only time will be able to tell if Trinidad is now entering a new phase in its development - as the ultimate tourist resort.
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