Presidio Modelo

The island’s most interesting attraction—the Model Prison—is five kilometers east of Nueva Gerona. It was built 1926–31 during President Machado’s repressive regime and was designed—based on the model of the penitentiary at Joliet, Illinois—in a “panopticon” plan that called for circular buildings that put prisoners under constant surveillance. The prison was designed to house 6,000 inmates in four five-story circular buildings. At the center of each rondel was a watchtower. A fifth circular building, in the center, housed the mess hall, dubbed “The Place of 3,000 Silences” because talking was prohibited. Prisoners were woken at 5 a.m.; silencio was at 9 p.m. The last prisoner went home in 1967, and only the shells remain.

You approach an impressive neocolonial facade with a stairway of local marble that leads up to the old administrative building (now a hobby center and school for UJotaCe, the Young Communists). The rondels and museum are reached by following the perimeter road to the left.

The two oblong buildings that now house the Museo Presidio Modelo (tel. 046/32-5112; Mon.–Sat. 8 a.m.–4 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m.–noon; entrance CUC2, cameras CUC3, videos CUC25) were used during World War II to intern Japanese-Cubans and Germans captured in Cuban waters. The first wing of the museum contains black-and-white photos and memorabilia from the Machado era. Another wing was the hospital, which in 1953 housed Fidel Castro and 25 other revolutionaries sentenced to imprisonment here following the attack on the Moncada barracks. They lived apart from the other prisoners and were privileged. Their beds are still in place, with a black-and-white photo of each prisoner on the wall. Fidel’s bed is next to last, to the left, facing the door. Castro used his time here to good effect. Batista foolishly allowed him to set up a school where the group studied economics, revolutionary theory, and guerrilla tactics. On May 15, 1955, the revolutionaries were released to much fanfare. The Academía Ideológica Abel Santamaría is cordoned off; it amounts to three long tables and a blackboard. Immediately to the left of the museum entrance is the room where Fidel—prisoner RN3859—was later kept in solitary confinement (ostensibly for heckling dictator Fulgencio Batista during a visit). It’s surprisingly large (about 400 square feet), with a lofty ceiling, marble seat, and a spacious bathroom with shower of gleaming white tiles. A glass case contains some of his favorite books.

A taxi from Nueva Gerona will cost about CUC6 round-trip.