Cirilo VillaverdeThe most famous of the Cuban novelists, Cirilo Villaverde, began his tour to Vuelta Abajo in March, 1839. Accompanied by the French painter Alejandro Moreau and the presbyter Francisco Ruiz arrived at San Antonio de los Baños.
Villaverde wrote: ‘’When we spotted the Villa it was around eleven o'clock. It can not be denied that San Antonio is one of the most beautiful villages of our inland populations of the western region. By the irregularities of land, its plant is not regular. At the Real street, there are spacious modern buildings. There are many assorted lingerie, food and hardware shops, as well as several inns, pharmacies, a hospital, revenue administrations, a notary, a barracks, a church and a school of first letters.
Concerning the Villa, the novelist said: "It owes its celebrity and greatness to the illustrious founder, a tireless person promoting all sorts of improvements. To the prodigious fertility of the land full of coffee plantations; to its topographical location on a small hill, whose core is of limestone; to the river which runs clean and pure with enough water flow through a deep and rocky channel". Villaverde portrayed the most distinctive features of San Antonio de los Baños.
