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Museo Chorro de Maíta, Banes

Take a closer look at the Museo Chorro de Maíta in Banes where the greatest archaeological find in Cuba is preserved 

Museo Chorro de Maíta, Banes
© Sol de Cuba

The Museo Chorro de Maíta (Chorro de Maíta Museum) in the municipality of Banes, in Holguín, is a gallery of archaeological type exhibiting one the best collections of this kind in Cuba. The museum was opened in 1990 and a year later it turned into a Monumento Nacional (National Monument).

Museo Chorro de Maíta
© Sol de Cuba

Chorro de Maíta was a small village of native Cuban farmers that around AD 800 took the opportunity to use the fertility of the soil and the abundance of water and subsequently they settled there. The arrival of the Spanish in 1510 meant that the civilization had come to an end despite the fact that the area started to populate in the 18th century. In this century ranches were built, one of them belonging to a woman called Maíta and it is being said that she had a water pump in her grounds. That is where the name of the place comes from.

Already in the 20th century it was discovered the existence of native settlements that were in that particular place and afterwards in 1930 the explorations began. Among the many finds we may highlight human remains, pottery, plates, earrings… Although the event that truly turns Chorro de Maíta into one of the most important archaeological sites in the country is the discovery of the biggest cemetery of potters found in the whole of Cuba, a 2,000 m2 in total which includes 108 buried corpses. 

The Chorro de Maíta Museum started out in life with the objective of having every archaeological find of this area in it and showing them to the public. One of the main attractions of the museum is probably the way that it is built. It was built on the actual excavated area in a way that you are able to see all those discoveries inside the museum.

More information:

Location:

Guardalavaca, Holguín

Opening hours:

Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Interactive map:

Holguín