Researchers Locate First Settlement of the Holy Spirit Village

Researchers have located the first settlement of the town of the Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit), in the center of Cuba, which on June 4 will get to the 499th years of its foundation by the Spanish.

By Raul Garcia Alvarez

Luis Olmo Jas, member of the speleological Sama Group, told Prensa Latina that the original site “constituted by Diego Velazquez in 1514” is located near Puente de Palo stream, a tributary of Yayabo river, 7 km east of the current city of Sancti Spiritus.

He said the studies started from notes made by the historian Tadeo Martínez Moles in the 18th century and traces provided by other scholars in the late 20th century.

He pointed out that the research made by historian Javier Sanso and architect Felix Bismarck, among others, constituted a major contribution to unravel the mystery of the location of the first settlement of the fourth Cuban village.

He explained that they have located more than 3.000 archaeological evidence, aboriginal or colonial showing the existence of elements of transculturation.

Since 2008, the Workshop of Colonial and Aboriginal Archaeology sponsors the research to determine the founding site of Sancti Spiritus, in which participates Heritage, Speleological Society, Sama Group and Foundation Antonio Núñez Jiménez for Nature and Man, among others.