1 Best Sight in El Valle de los Ingenios, Central Cuba

Manaca Iznaga

This site of an 18th-century farmhouse once belonged to one of the region's wealthiest families. It stands next to the Torre de Iznaga, a 43-meter (141-foot) tower built in the early 1800s. Legend has it that the two Iznaga sons were in love with a beautiful young woman, and their father told one to build a tower and the other to dig a well, with the promise that whoever built higher or dug deeper could have her. But when they were done, both the tower and well were 43 meters, so the old man married the woman himself. The tower actually had a much more practical purpose: it was a place from which to keep an eye on the thousands of slaves who worked the surrounding plantations. The large bell that was rung when slaves tried to escape lies on the ground near the farmhouse.