Fodor's Expert Review Iglesia de San Juan Bautista

The squat colonial structure with a massive bell tower on the plaza's eastern end is the Church of St. John the Baptist. Its splendidly restored 18th-century interior (head for the back door, as the main doors are usually shut) includes high arches, an elaborate beamed cedar ceiling, and gilt-wood altars. Although its stone floor dates from 1550, most of the chapel was rebuilt in 1752; it underwent extensive renovation in the 1940s, including the construction of a new main altar using parts of the original Baroque altar. The smaller altar to the right is dedicated to the Virgen de la Caridad, Cuba's patron saint. The gilt shrines along the walls are dedicated to various saints; note the pregnant Virgin, brought from Seville in the 1700s, to the left of the main door.