The Independence Statue at Remedios was a French gift on the occasion of the 100 years of independence of the United States in 1876. At that time Cuba was fighting for its independence from Spain. Right next door is the Iglesia de la Virgen del Buen Viaje, around which a legend is entwined: during a storm, two fishermen pulled a crate on board their boat and found a statue of the Virgin Mary inside. Back in Remedios they handed the statue over to a man. The next day the priest came to claim the statue for his church and transported it there. When he went to look at it the following morning, the statue had disappeared. It had miraculously returned to the man's house. Then people said that the statue had decided for itself where it wanted to stand. Since then, Remedios is the only city in Cuba with two churches in the same place.