Pico San Juan is the highest point of the central area of the island of

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

with 1,140 meters above sea level.

Geography

Pico San Juan is located in the municipality of

Cumanayagua Cumanayagua () is a municipality and town in the Cienfuegos Province of Cuba. It is located in a valley near the Guamuhaya Mountains (usually these mountains are referred as Escambray Mountains, east of Cienfuegos, the provincial capital. Histor ...

, in the

Cienfuegos Province Cienfuegos () is one of the provinces of Cuba. The capital city of the province is also called Cienfuegos and was founded by French settlers in 1819. Overview Until 2011 Cienfuegos was the smallest province in Cuba (excluding the city of Hav ...

, and belongs to the

Escambray Mountains The Escambray Mountains () are a mountain range in the central region of Cuba, in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara. Overview The Escambray Mountains are located in the south-central region of the island, extending a ...

or "Guamuhaya", the largest mountain range in central Cuba. The mountain rises on a 1,140 meters above sea level of rivers, forests, valleys and peaks. Originally counting at a height of 1,142 meters above sea level, its last 2 meters were lowered to the current height in the 1980s, with the purpose of installing a meteorological radar that is still in that place. At the top, there is also a bust of the prominent Cuban caver

Antonio Núñez Jiménez Antonio Núñez Jiménez was a Cuban geographer, speleologist, archaeologist, scientist and revolutionary. Núñez was born in Alquízar, Havana Province (current Artemisa Province) on April 20, 1923. In 1950, he received his first doctorate ...

History

The Sierra del Escambray, in the "Guamuhaya" Massif, was the scene of small combats between the Cuban aborigines and the Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

s during the 16th century. Later, during the last third of the 19th century, it was a refuge for the

Mambises The term mambises refers to the guerrilla Cuban independence soldiers who fought against Spain in the Ten Years' War (1868–78) and Cuban War of Independence (1895–98). The term is found applied in different history texts to any person who foug ...

who fought for the independence of Cuba (1868-1898). Finally, it was also the scene of the armed struggle in the 1950s and 1960s, first of the

26th of July Movement The 26th of July Movement ( es, Movimiento 26 de Julio; M-26-7) was a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro. The movement's name commemorates its 26 July 1953 attack on the army barracks on San ...

, the

Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil ( abbreviation: DRE; English: Student Revolutionary Directorate) was a Cuban student activist group which in opposition to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista from 1954 to 1957 played a role in the Cuban Revolu ...

and the Second National Front of Escambray against the army of General

Fulgencio Batista Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar (; ; born Rubén Zaldívar, January 16, 1901 – August 6, 1973) was a Cuban military officer and politician who served as the elected president of Cuba from 1940 to 1944 and as its U.S.-backed military dictator ...

(1957-1958), and then, during the

Escambray rebellion The Escambray rebellion was an armed conflict from 1959 to 1965 in the Escambray Mountains during which several insurgent groups fought against the Cuban government led by Fidel Castro. The military operation against the rebellion was called the ...

(1960-1965).

References

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

Geography of Cienfuegos Province North American 1000 m summits {{Cuba-geo-stub