Moncada Barracks is located on the Avenida Moncada at the intersection with the Trinidad street.

Monday -  Saturday  09:00-17:00
Sunday 09:00-13:00

(temporarely closed; under restoration)

The museum is closed to the visitors, as it is under restoration since 2021. Since it is thought that the museum will reopen its doors being renovated, but with the same content, there is no harm in conveying the old state of the museum here.

Before the revolution Moncada barracks was the headquarter of the military force under the command of the bloody dictator Fulgencia Batista in Santiago de Cuba. It was named after the General Guillermón Moncada, a hero of the War of Independence. Its importance was that it was the second largest garrison in the country, occupied by about 400 soldiers.

On July 26, 1953, the barracks was attacked by a group of rebels led by Fidel Castro. This armed assault is widely accepted as the beginning of revolutionary movement.

In 1960, Fidel Castro himself drove the bulldozer to demolish the outer walls of the barracks, and 3 weeks later the barracks was converted into a school that took the name Ciudad Escolar 26 de Julio. In 1967, a certain part of the former barracks was devoted to a museum to exhibit the facts related with the assault.

The bullet holes visible on the façade are not original.

The museum consists of seven exhibition rooms. 

In the room 1, the theme is the history of the fortress since its construction in 1859. In a showcase you can see the replica of the sword of José Guillermo Moncada Veranes, the jail record of Antonio Guiteras that was imprisoned here in 1931. 

In the room 2, a meticulous scale model details the three places attacked by the rebel groups: the Moncada barracks, the civil hospital (Hospital Saturnino Lora) and the courthouse (Palacio de Justica). The portrait photos of 61 rebels (6 of them fallen during the action, 45 of them murdered later in Santiago de Cuba, and 10 of them killed in Bayamo) are demonstrated in the room. In the showcase you can see the bloodied uniforms and belongings of the rebels, as well as the weapons used in the assault. Photos show the creation of the movement headed by Fidel Castro, the military preparation before the assault, the places where the young rebels practiced shooting, and the Siboney farm where the rebels stayed before the attack.

The room 3 was one of the torture rooms formerly. Therefore, the showcase in the room is full of instruments of torture. You can see the cell where the detainees were temporarily kept before the torture sessions.

The room 4 focuses on the hearings in 1953. At the photos you can see the rebels in the prison Presidio Modelo in Isla de Pinos (today Isla de la Juventud), their release from the prison, and their days in exile in Mexico. 

In the room 5, the portrait photos of the 82 rebels that arrived in Granma yacht in Santiago de Cuba, are shown on a panel. A replica of the yacht is placed in the middle of the room.

In the room 6, the subject of the clandestine struggle is handled, focusing on the armed uprising in Cienfuegos. You can see also the weapons and helmets captured by the Batista’s soldiers, and the sayuela (female underwear that covers the lower part of the body or worn under the skirt in Cuba) used by the Cuban women to hide weapons, bullets, propaganda material and other necessary items on the Sierra Maestra mountains.

In room 7, you can see the painting made by 15 Cuban plastic artists as a tribute to the 61 rebels killed due to the armed action against the Moncada barracks. The historical evolution of the struggle from Grito de Yara in 1868 until the Moncada attack in 1953 has been reflected on this painting, entitled “Absuelto por la Historia / absolved by history”. A vest worn by José Martí during his visits to the Caribbean countries, and a Winchester rifle as a symbol of the weapons used by the rebel army on the Siearra Maestra mountains are exhibited in the room. In the final display cabinet, you can see a weapon, carved with the national flag and the inscription “Vale más morir de pies a vivir de rodillas / It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”.