Artemisa is a municipality and city in Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

, formerly part of La Habana Province

La Habana Province

Havana Province was one of the provinces of Cuba, prior to being divided into two new provinces of Artemisa and Mayabeque on January 1, 2011. It had 711,066 people in the 2002 census. The largest city was Artemisa .-Geography:...

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According to a law approved by the Cuban National Assembly in August 2010, Artemisa became the capital city of the newly formed Artemisa Province

Artemisa Province

Artemisa Province is one of two new provinces in Cuba, which creation was approved by the Cuban National Assembly by splitting former La Habana Province.Artemisa was the largest city and municipality of the former La Habana province...

, which comprises 8 municipalities of the former La Habana Province and 3 from Pinar del Río

Pinar del Río

Pinar del Río is a city in Cuba. It is the capital of Pinar del Río Province.Inhabitants of the area are called Pinareños.Neighborhoods in the city include La Conchita, La Coloma, Briones Montoto and Las Ovas.-History:...

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Artemisa was an important source of fighters supporting Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

's Revolution

Cuban Revolution

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...

 during the attack on "Cuartel Moncada

Moncada Barracks

The Moncada Barracks was a military barracks in Santiago de Cuba, named after General Guillermón Moncada, a hero of the War of Independence. On July 26, 1953, the barracks was the site of an armed attack by a small group of revolutionaries led by Fidel Castro. This armed attack is widely accepted...

" in Santiago de Cuba (1953) and Sierra Maestra Guerrilla (1956–1959). The Martyrs Mausoleum (Mausoleo de los Mártires) in Artemisa is a National Monument of Cuba.

Demographics

In 2004, the municipality of Artemisa had a population of 81,209. With a total area of 690 km² (266.4 sq mi), it has a population density of 117.7 /km2.

The municipality is divided into the barrio

Barrio

Barrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...

s of Las Cañas, Lavandero (El Pilar), Cayajabos, Lincoln (Andorra), Pijirigua, Puerta de la Güira, Las Mangas, Neptuno and El Corojal.

The origin of the name of Artemisa is uncertain. It has been argued to have originated from the Greek goddess

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 Artemis

Artemis

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...

 (Diana, in the Roman version) or that it refers to the name of Ragweed in Spanish, Artemisia

Artemisia (plant)

Artemisia is a large, diverse genus of plants with between 200 to 400 species belonging to the daisy family Asteraceae. It comprises hardy herbs and shrubs known for their volatile oils. They grow in temperate climates of the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere, usually in dry or semi-dry...

 (Ambrosia artemisifolia), abundant at the time.

Artemisa is widely known among Artemiseños by the name Jardín de Cuba (Garden of Cuba). Its ferric red soil is also an outstanding feature, and provides great fertility to the area, which produces banana, tobacco, sugar cane, and minor fruits. Due to the color of the soil, Artemisa is known as Villa Roja (Red Village).

Places of historical importance include the Cafetal Angerona (named after Angerona

Angerona

In Roman mythology, Angerona or Angeronia was an old Roman goddess, whose name and functions are variously explained. She is sometimes identified with the goddess Feronia....

, the goddess of silence and fertility, and protector of Rome), which is currently in ruins. Its remains evoke a period of great abundance, business development, love affairs, and slavery. The cafetal belonged to the German entrepreneur Cornelio Souchay who fell in love with the black Haitian, Úrsula Lambert. The couple lived their romance in secret due to the taboos of the period.

The Hotel Campoamor, built by Asturiano Fernando González-Campoamor, has played an important role since it was finished in 1911. Many important figures visited the place, including Rita Longa, Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...

, Juan Marinello, Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945...

, and Ignacio Villa "Bola de Nieve." Centrales azucareros (Sugar mills) Pilar and Lavandero are landmarks of the city, as well as the mansion of sugar magnate, Julio Lobo

Julio Lobo

Julio Lobo was a powerful Cuban sugar trader and financier. From the late 1930s to 1960, when he left Cuba to go into exile, Lobo was considered the single most powerful sugar broker in the world. At the time of the start of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Lobo's fortune was estimated at close to...

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Artemisa's patron saint

Patron saint

A patron saint is a saint who is regarded as the intercessor and advocate in heaven of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person...

 is Saint Mark the Evangelist. The church of Artemisa is located in The Park (el Parque). The building was renovated due to efforts made by Father Antonio Rodriguez Dias, the hard work and cooperation of many Artemiseños, and generous monetary donations from German brethren.

Important personalities in the history of Cuba were born or lived in Artemisa. Among them Magdalena Peñaredonda, a poetess and journalist, appointed as captain of rebel forces during the war of independence, Father Guillermo González Arocha, born in Regla, but whose significant contribution to the independence of Cuba was carried out while a priest in Artemisa, is considered an adopted son of the city. This priest also founded a school and had the cemetery of the city built.

Artemisa belonged to Pinar del Río Province

Pinar del Río Province

Pinar del Río is one of the provinces of Cuba. It is at the western end of the island of Cuba.-Geography:The Pinar del Río province is Cuba's westernmost province and contains one of Cuba's three main mountain ranges, the Cordillera de Guaniguanico, divided into the easterly Sierra del Rosario and...

until 1970.