CubaPLUS Magazine

The Surveyor’s Park is an unusual tourist destination but a very popular one in this capital city,  being related to the railroad, as evidenced by the old locomotives that hold stories in that perfect recreational setting.

The interesting space, located in the vicinity of the Central Railway Station in Old Havana, exhibits a group of century-old machines that tell us about passenger trips, cargo transport and the evolution of the sugar industry, which was once the pillar of Cuba’s national economy.

The Monument Restoration Company of the Historian of the City Office built this open-air museum, delivered in 2009 in greeting to the 490th anniversary of the founding of the Villa de San Cristóbal de La Habana, founded on November 16, 1519.

The old Surveyor’s Park was inaugurated in the middle of last century on land near the Havana Railway Terminal. Its name refers to the professionals responsible for measuring and outlining land, and this is recorded on a plaque located there.

Throughout its history, Cuba has had many novelties, including having the first railroad in Latin America, even before Spain, where the first train journey took place on October 28, 1848.

There is also a Railway Museum in Havana, declared a National Monument in November 2002, in the former Cristina Station.

The former headquarters of the Western Railway, dating back to 1861, positioned opposite to the central and populous Cuatro Caminos Market.

Experts estimate the value of the important railway collection preserved in Cristina and other Havana locations at seven million dollars. Some of these pieces were in operation until 2005, which led them to accumulate 127 years of work, especially in sugar mills in different parts of the country.

One of the most emblematic machines in the museum is the one called La Junta Locomotive, built in 1842, which arrived in the western Cuban province of Matanzas in January 1843 and provided service until the 1890s.

Historians tell us that in September 1830 a Royal Order was received on the island stating that José de Jesús Herrera y Herrera had appealed to the King of Spain to request permission for the construction of an iron road, starting from the capital. And on November 19, 1837, the first railway section was inaugurated, between Havana and the city of San Felipe and Santiago de Bejucal, also in the western part of Cuba.

The old locomotives that can be seen in Surveyor’s Park and other dissimilar sites of this archipelago illustrate a whole golden age to the delight of travelers visiting Cuba.