Santuario de San Lázaro


You can make your own journey to the site of Cuba's biggest annual pilgrimage, tucked away in the village-like Havana suburb of Rincón. The saint inside the church is San Lázaro (represented by the orisha Babalú Ayé in the Santería religion), the patron saint of healing and the sick. Hundreds come to light candles and lay flowers daily. Thousands come on December 17 to pray for respite from illness or to give thanks for cures.

There's a small museum displaying a raft of previous offerings to San Lázaro in a chapel next door.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby attractions

1. Mausoleo de Antonio Maceo

2.02 MILES

On a hilltop at El Cacahual, 8km south of Aeropuerto Internacional José Martí via Santiago de las Vegas, is the little-visited mausoleum of the hero of…

2. ExpoCuba

5.63 MILES

A visit to Parque Lenin can be combined with a trip to ExpoCuba, at Calabazar in Arroyo Naranjo, 3km south of Las Ruinas restaurant, although rare is the…

3. Jardín Botánico Nacional

5.8 MILES

Havana's curiously under-visited 600-hectare botanical garden suffers from an out-of-town location and poor transport links (get a taxi). It opened in…

4. Parque Lenin

6.32 MILES

Parque Lenin, in Arroyo Naranjo municipality, 20km south of central Havana, is the city's largest recreational area. Constructed between 1969 and 1972 on…

5. Galería Provincial Eduardo Abela

6.65 MILES

This bold and groundbreaking art gallery is anything but provincial. The first room focuses on painting while others showcase poignant black-and-white…

6. Museo del Humor

6.77 MILES

Unique in Cuba is this fun selection of cartoons, caricatures and other entertaining ephemera. Among the drawings exhibited in a neoclassical colonial…

7. Iglesia de San Antonio de los Baños

6.88 MILES

This impressive early-19th-century church has twin towers and porthole windows, and is the largest, grandest religious building in Artemisa and Mayabeque.

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "cuba/havana/outer-havana/attractions/santuario-de-san-lazaro/a/poi-sig/370335/1333141",
      "position": "superzone"
    }