page_title: Hotel Nacional de Cuba
section_title: Hill of Taganana
hierarchical_section_title: Hotel Nacional de Cuba / Hill of Taganana
caption_attribution_description: English: Battery of Santa Clara_areal. Havana, Cuba
context_page_description: The Hotel Nacional de Cuba is a historic Spanish eclectic style hotel in Havana, Cuba, opened in 1930. Located on the sea front of the Vedado district, it stands on Taganana Hill, offering commanding views of the sea and the city.
context_section_description: The Santa Clara Battery was built on top of a hill which was home to one of the most historic caves on the island. The hill of Taganana, located in the coastal outcrop of Punta Brava near the cove of San Lázaro took its name from a cavern in the Canary Islands where the princess Guanche Cathaysa took refuge. She was captured and sold by the Castilians as a slave in 1494. The 7-year-old Guanche girl from Taganana (in Santa Cruz de Tenerife) was taken captive along with four other youngsters (Cathayta, Inopona, Cherohisa and Ithaisa). Cathayta was sold as a slave with her companions in Valencia, in April 1494. It is believed that after this she spent the rest of her life somewhere in Spain as a Menina for some woman of the Spanish high society.
  In Cuba, in a parallel legend that states that one of the caves under the Taganana hill served as a shelter for a Cuban Indian girl of the same name who fled from her Spanish persecutors.
  The Cuban novelist Cirilo Villaverde immortalized Guanche Cathaysa in his literary work, La Cueva de Taganana.
caption: Battery of Santa Clara on Hill of Taganana, before construction of the hotel. circa 1920s,
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