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El Valle de los Ingenios (Valley of the sugar mills) is an unique treasure of the sugar industry development in the bigger of the Antilles. Endorsed by the UNESCO with the Patrimony of Mankind title - next to the historical center of the city of Trinidad -, contains several dozens of ruins corresponding to ancient sugar mils, summer houses, bunkhouses and other facilities linked to the sugar elaboration.
The time has passed by, but today some of the big housings of the plantations and work houses are still standing. It seems as if they wanted to perpetuate the footprints of the prosperity and the splendor that the area had in other times. One can still admire, as vestige of the greatness of the past in the surroundings of Trinidad, the elegant belfry in the tower of the Manaca-Iznaga sugar mill, declared National Monument, like the city. One can also see the house of the Bella Vista old sugar mill, built in the fourth decade of the XIX century.
Equally it stands out, for its authentic Creole style, the housing of the Guaimaro sugar mill, one of the most productive of that time. Among the remains of the Manaca-Iznaga batey figure some huts of an slaves town. It is considered among the biggest ones up to 1857.
The best view in the Valle de los Ingenios can be seen from the Manaca-Iznaga tower-belfry or at the natural vantage points of the Loma del puerto and Cerro de la Vigía hills.
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| Manaca-Iznaga Tower-Belfry, 16 km from Trinidad. It is 44m high. |
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